strredwolf | (no subject)

I usually don't blog about stuff inside Comic Genesis, but then... well, a bit of work philosophy.

You see, I'm a bit open about how I work. I've found out that the more people know, the less they question and the less they bother you about things. I'd rather know what's going on and have some documentation over having to dig through source code myself (the latter is evident with AutoKeen, which I rewrote into WolfKeen and hopefully will soon test publicly). I try to maintain a To-Do list on the CG Wiki, so that everyone knows what I'm trying to work on and that I know what I have to do (because I forget, I'm only human).

However, my co-admin has a different philosophy that doesn't mesh -- she rather do it and leave everyone behind, causing major problems when I try to do something that was valid before her changes. She doesn't tell anyone despite being asked many times, having several avenues of communications availible to her. I keep asking and asking, and nothing is being replied back until I force the issue. It makes me look bad, it makes her look bad, it makes CG look bad, it makes Keenspot look bad.

Over CG's IRC channel, we got into an argument. I didn't know what was going on and I ask. I wait and ask again. I wait again. And then I tell people that I will wait, with was a passing threat (even though I felt it wasn't). Then the co-admin starts virtually wailing into me while questions finally get answered... and it devoles down to a volunteer asking the co-admin about something, getting a friend to help her, and the co-admin saying yes. I wasn't told. I didn't get any word of this, after asking her to. And I get hell when I try to find out myself.

I asked her again, over and over, to talk to me, tell me what she's doing so I can:

Get out of her way
Raise objections if need be
Support the end product when folks email me

It's such a simple thing. Tell me what you're doing. I'm already telling you what I'm doing. Talk to me. I don't automatically shoot everything down. Just talk to me.

And yet she doesn't do it, and does her own thing, giving me the excuse that I'd shoot it down or kill it.

Yeah. Like the individual forums idea she wanted to do. Folks couldn't wait, and wanted forums now. I dragged that out and asked folks opinions. I told her that before, durring, and now I've had to clean up her attempts because we need the server for another use.

I know about the co-admin's problems outside CG. I do read her journal. She did contact me and Keenspot when she was having problems securing Internet access, and Keenspot helped out.

I know we're having problems. I'm willing to work things out, but it's like I'm being left behind. I don't like that, especially when I asked to be kept in the loop in order to perform my role at CG admin. When I'm unable to do that, I will make myself known so I can...

...and if it continues on for too long, I will have to take drastic action.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I am not paid officially to work on comicgenesis, nor do I have the time to do everything I want with it. One of those is documenting everything. I Document changes to other code, but you know what, almost nothing was documented from the start. AutoKeen and PHPBB2 have scant if non-existant documentation. Redwolf leaves me out of the loop when he fixes something in my code so I have to sometimes revert the whole bloody thing to figure out why it's broken worse. Take the comment about changing the login page, well I had to go and revert it back to the original pre-modifcation-by-anyone and make each modification again manually untill it worked right.

I don't apply for programming jobs because I don't really care to work on programming, despite any talent I have for it. Any programming I do have done for comicgenesis was purely out of me wanting to improve it.

Strredwolf has to remember that he is not the be all ends-all to comicgenesis and this entire tiff started with him threating DMCA against someone ELSE WHO WAS VOLUNTEERING TO DO SOMETHING WITH COMICGENESIS.

The last person, and I do mean the LAST person that I got into this kind of argument with, I quit. It's not worth my time to argue with someone who doesn't listen, who makes dangerous threats, and pisses off everyone. This also happened three years ago to the date. I am not wanting a repeat of it.

Strredwolf has to remember that he is not the be all ends-all to comicgenesis and this entire tiff started with him threating DMCA against someone ELSE WHO WAS VOLUNTEERING TO DO SOMETHING WITH COMICGENESIS.

Let me clarify what started this:

Someone volunteered herself and her friend to help with Comic Genesis skin the CG Forums.
You said yes, go ahead. YOU DID NOT TELL ANYONE ELSE YOU DID THAT
I come along, not knowing any better, and find her friend doing something which I thought was wrong.
I try to ask the friend about it, and don't get a quick responce. I then said I'll wait, because I didn't want to do any legal wrangling. IF THAT IS A THREAT SO BE IT.
Then all hell breaks loose when everyone goes in and starts wailing on me for how I tried to get information!

It all comes back to how you're not communicating your intents and purposes to me and the rest of CG. I'm supporting CG, Kisai, along with you -- and Nate did say we have to work together. If you do not want a repeat of what happened three years ago, then take Bookworm's advise to heart: [b]You[/b] need to change when someone is willing to listen, willing to change, but is not getting what he is asking for to effect those changes.

"The last person, and I do mean the LAST person that I got into this kind of argument with, I quit."

If it keeps happening that you have such arguments with people, maybe it's you and not them?

Look Kisai, nothing against you personally, but you're not what I would consider a good coder. There has been more than one occasion when I've had to set you straight on how something works because you were making a foolish and/or dangerous assumption about how the application or database works.

That's not to say I don't think you have the potential to do wondrous things, nor that I don't appreciate you for what you have accomplished, but it makes the fact that you don't communicate with Striker that much worse.

In a professional environment, it's extremely important to talk with your colleagues to make sure that you're on the right track, and to make sure that you're not the absolute only person who can do something (like support code). So why should you tackle this with anything less than a professional attitude? Because you're not being paid? Give me a break. This is a job, whether you're paid or not, and if you're not up to the task of working as part of a team, and can't handle the amount of work to do it properly, maybe you SHOULD quit.

Striker has his own issues. He's often heavy-handed in his relations with the users, but he's got a good head on his shoulders and seems pretty good at not only knowing what is the right thing to do (when talking about code/systems), but how and why. He just needs some adjustment on his people skills :) (sorry man, but it's true ;) )

Honestly, if the two of you cut all of the bullshit out and worked as a team I think that CG would be far better than anything else, but your seeming hatred for him drags everyone down.

You just need to realize that he has the same goal as you, and if you help each other and work as a team you will do better. If you keep him out of the loop you're going to continue to bash heads with each other, over and over and over, and that benefits no one. It makes for a worse system, more difficult to fix, more difficult to keep working, harder to use and with more conflict than anyone needs to see.

"Without Striker, there is no loop." Make that your mantra. It's a good place to start. Keep the lines of communication going so that if someone contacts him with a problem he has a chance to figure it out.

Sam

"He just needs some adjustment on his people skills :) (sorry man, but it's true ;) )"

Yeah, I got to get out more too so I can.

I didn't bring Strike into this at all. I was referring _only_ to your comment about documentation.

No, documentation doesn't take much time. I'm not talking about reams of paper describing everything, I'm talking about a line of text that says things like..

# 02/22/05 - Added regexp() to search names through this function.

One of the absolute WORST coders I ran across liked to call functions crap like good_stuff() and really_good_stuff().

I had to debug his code more than once due to breakages in other sections done by other people. Needless to say, crap like that doesn't help much.

What you COULD do is set up a forum of your own, and every time you go to do anything (either of you), just put in a post. That'll datestamp, do a subject, and you have a starting point.

Subject: Working on glimmer_txt.php
Body: Changing to allow green aliens to shine.

(note - I've found that Wiki's are much harder to use for casual things like this)

BW

You know what I wrote 10 pages of stuff, but I'd rather sum it up this way:
I'm not paid for it, My code is MY code, If I'm hit by a truck tomorrow, nobody cares anyways.

I don't apply for programming jobs because I don't really care to work on programming, despite any talent I have for it.

No fucking shit you don't. I'm sorry, random stranger who commented on a blog I read, but this is absolute anathema. The following cannot be stated in strong enough terms.

When people go to program something professionally, in large teams, they have one guy who wears the hat labeled "tech lead". This person has a few jobs, but one of the most important ones is to eat the liver of anyone who isn't documenting their code. Newbie programmers get boxed about the ears about it over and over, with their jobs on the line of threat, until they acquiesce to make very clear what they're doing, and participate in top-of-file changelogs.

No, you're not getting paid. Yes, it's a hassle. Document your code. Document your changes. I personally can't believe ANYONE could stand working with you if this is your attitude on code documentation.

Document.
Document.
DOCUMENT.

I'm not going to turn this into a bloody LJDrama(TM)

READ: "I DO NOT DO PROGRAMMING OUTSIDE OF COMICGENESIS"

Fine, if I get hit by a truck tomorrow, I don't care. I'm not saying I like not documenting the code, but rather that's the only thing between me working on it and KeenSPOT hiring someone to do it.