[Haskell-cafe] Maintaining the community

[Andrea Rossato]

On Sun, Jul 15, 2007 at 07:05:53PM +1000, Donald Bruce Stewart wrote:
> So how would you think we can approve? We have to help in more specific
> ways, and listen more carefully to what people are asking?

I usually do this when I want a newcomer to join my community (for
instance my research community): I study him, I read his stuff, I try
to get to know him, so that I can find for him a place that can suit
his needs, feed his curiosity, and help him improve while maximizing
his contribution to the community. I treat him as she were my fellow
researcher, and not a student I'm supposed to teach to.

Just an example: I find it so much irritating when you give a paper to
someone and, before even reading it, the receiver starts asking you if
you have already read the just published papers of authors x and y
about a topic that could slightly resemble the one of your paper
(even if actually does not)? This a the kind of behaviour I always try
to avoid with new comers. I suppose they know more then me, even if in
different area of knowledge. We are all experts of almost nothing.

But I'm talking about a small research community, with one or two new
members a year.

I have no experience in managing such a large community as this one. I
just thought that the fact that I felt repelled by the behaviour of
some of the members of this community, and please believe me when I say
that that behaviour was far from being intentionally offensive or even
disrespectful in my regards, could be useful for someone that has such
a difficult task.

All my best wishes.
Andrea