From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from smtp1.linuxfoundation.org (smtp1.linux-foundation.org [172.17.192.35]) by mail.linuxfoundation.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 58CCA41C for ; Fri, 17 Jul 2015 16:11:59 +0000 (UTC) Received: from vena.lwn.net (tex.lwn.net [70.33.254.29]) by smtp1.linuxfoundation.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 503CA11E for ; Fri, 17 Jul 2015 16:11:58 +0000 (UTC) Date: Fri, 17 Jul 2015 10:11:51 -0600 From: Jonathan Corbet To: James Bottomley Message-ID: <20150717101151.5d5bc86d@lwn.net> In-Reply-To: <1437063875.18768.59.camel@HansenPartnership.com> References: <20150708114011.3a1f1861@noble> <2879113.fraeuJIr2M@avalon> <20150709193718.GD9169@vmdeb7> <20150710143641.GW4341@mwanda> <20150710160714.GL111846@vmdeb7> <20150710222351.GA28632@kroah.com> <20150711000034.GU111846@vmdeb7> <20150711001348.GA30675@kroah.com> <20150711055441.GA6316@sudip-PC> <20150715212043.775be5d2@gandalf.local.home> <20150716132551.GH4039@sirena.org.uk> <20150716094720.2bf9f5ac@gandalf.local.home> <55A7C7FE.6000604@sonymobile.com> <20150716094125.16cdda73@lwn.net> <1437063875.18768.59.camel@HansenPartnership.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Cc: "ksummit-discuss@lists.linuxfoundation.org" , Dan Carpenter , Jason Cooper Subject: Re: [Ksummit-discuss] [CORE TOPIC] Recruitment (Reviewers, Testers, Maintainers, Hobbyists) List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , On Thu, 16 Jul 2015 19:24:35 +0300 James Bottomley wrote: > Seriously, what is the actual problem? Who bites the heads off newbies > for sport? I ask because the first patch submission is usually treated > with helpfulness and tolerance, at least where I've been on the cc list. So, obviously, I was going for dramatic effect in my other posting. "Biting the heads off newbies" doesn't ordinarily happen. I think the whole Nick episode has shown how tolerant we can be, actually. The point I was trying to make is that there isn't one way to submit a patch to the kernel, there's a hundred ways to submit to various subsystems. Over on linux-kernel, I just saw a newish developer being politely told that a patch was unacceptable because the local variable declarations were not in reverse-Christmas-tree order. That's not in CodingStyle, and it's certainly not a universal rule in the kernel; it's just one of those things you have to know if you wander into certain scary neighborhoods. I don't know if there's anything to be done about it, but I do think that this thicket of weird local rules is intimidating to new developers, even if missteps are dealt with politely. jon