PyCon Feedback and Volunteers ( Pycon disappointment)

[Aahz]

In article <87fxup4goi.fsf at physik.rwth-aachen.de>,
Torsten Bronger  <bronger at physik.rwth-aachen.de> wrote:
>Aahz writes:
>> In article <873aqp6bbq.fsf at physik.rwth-aachen.de>,
>> Torsten Bronger  <bronger at physik.rwth-aachen.de> wrote:
>>>
>>> I see no reason why the "fault" for parts of the rest being
>>> sub-optimal, too, must necessarily be on the attendee's side.  (Just
>>> hypothetically; I wasn't at PyCon.)
>>
>> Let's suppose you have a group of friends who collectively throw a
>> party.  They invite you to help out organizing it and putting it
>> together, but you choose not to.  If you don't have a good time at
>> the party because it wasn't what you wanted, I think it's fair to say
>> it was your fault.  And I think exactly the same thing is true for
>> PyCon, albeit on a much larger scale.
>
>Fair enough.  But then I question the sensibility in saying "it is XY's
>fault" at all.
>
>Somebody not involved in organising was not happy with the Con.  You
>may take the criticism or leave it.  The criticism may be justified or
>not.  But saying that it is "his fault" is useless in my opinion, it
>even discourages feedback.  It think it's okay to evaluate something
>that you didn't help coming into existence.  A good point is a good
>point no matter who makes it.

Two things:

* There's a reason why I labelled it a "rant" ;-)

* You may be misunderstanding the distinction between "fault" and
"blame".

When there is fault, it is a person's responsibility to correct it.
Blame, OTOH, is about responsibility that *should* have been taken.
We're not telling people that they should volunteer to run PyCon
(although the vast majority of people who help run events like this end
up enjoying them more than people who just show up).  But anyone who
complains and doesn't volunteer is at fault -- the only recourse likely
to produce results is to change their volunteer status.

As I said, feedback is welcome.  Those of us who volunteer do so because
we care about the Python community and want to put on a successful event
for everyone.  But we can rarely make commitments to change anything
unless people step up to fix them.

It's really no different from the people who show up here on c.l.py to
complain about Python: the answer inevitably boils down to "write a
patch!"
-- 
Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"It is easier to optimize correct code than to correct optimized code."
--Bill Harlan