Re: How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors?

[MSavoritias <email@msavoritias.me>]

On 9/7/23 23:38, Katherine Cox-Buday wrote:
> On 9/5/23 2:43 PM, Liliana Marie Prikler wrote:
>> Am Dienstag, dem 05.09.2023 um 19:40 +0100 schrieb (:
>>> Liliana Marie Prikler <liliana.prikler@gmail.com> writes:
>>>> Uhm, we have snippets?
>>>
>>> Well, those are exclusive to Emacs :)  And without regard to /that/
>>> issue, I do think that there's a problem if the commit format is so
>>> complex that it's not trivial for anyone new to the project to write
>>> them out manually.
>> By definition, no amount of typing is non-trivial, safe for the empty
>> amount, which good luck trying to commit your changes by pure mouse
>> movements, I guess?
>>
>> Now, if you excuse my French, I think the problem isn't really as much
>> that people struggle to type out the perfect ChangeLog on the first
>> try, which also makes it odd to request a linter.  Bear in mind that
>> committers will sign off anything that appears convincing enough, even
>> if there are smaller mistakes in the message.  Trust me, I've been
>> there and seen that; and also done it myself.
>>
>> Instead, we have seen in this thread appeals to age, appeals to
>> perceived lack of personal benefit, and now appeals to typing effort,
>> none of which really make that great of an argument against the
>> ChangeLog style, especially when they come in combination with a
>> refusal to make use of already provided tools.  I think we're starting
>> to see the moving of the goal post as the actual game here.
>>
>> Maybe it's time to take a step back and instead of asking “How can we
>> decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors?”, we should perhaps
>> ask “For which contributors do we want to/can we decrease the cognitive
>> overhead?”  We have drifted much from the original post that discussed
>> moms with full-time jobs, who struggle to do “difficult” tasks
>> (simplified wording; may change the meaning of the OP a little).  Now,
>> I personally struggle to see how your personal preference for
>> communication media, commit message style, and other things that were
>> discussed in any of the preceding threads actually correlate with being
>> a parent.  However, I do know that with its 150 million users, most
>> people of the world don't have a Github account.  Being one of the 4
>> billion email users out there is a comparably low barrier of entry
>> imho.  So, whose cognitive overhead do you want to reduce (besides the
>> obvious "my own", which everyone always tries)?
>
> Liliana, many of your responses in this thread are not OK. They have 
> been dismissive and have strayed into personal attacks. At times I'm 
> not sure if you're intentionally misinterpreting the conversation to 
> try and make a point.
>
> If you disagree with something, or have a point to make, please do so 
> directly, and without attacking anyone's character or making veiled 
> innuendos about their motives or capabilities.
>
> Speaking for myself, I think if you asked me questions instead of 
> inferring narratives, you'd find that our values and preferences are 
> probably more closely aligned than you realize.
>
> We're all here to try and make Guix better, but we can't do that in a 
> hostile environment.
>
>
Completely agree with this too. I wanted to say that Katherine is not 
alone in feeling that some comments

in the thread have been dismissive or even elitist in a lot of cases. 
and one of the main people posting these

have been Liliana.