.NET Foundation boss apologises for pull request that sparked community row
(2021/10/07)
- Reference: 1633580104
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/10/07/net_foundation_boss_apologises_for/
- Source link:
.NET Foundation executive director Claire Novotny has [1]apologised for her actions, after other members objected to her intervention on one of its projects and a board member [2]resigned over the organisation's direction.
"I made a mistake this last week when I made a PR and merged it to a project without discussion," Novotny wrote, probably referring to [3]this merge in which she added support for reproducible builds to the open-source project ReactiveUI.
As the GitHub comments on that merge spell out, Novotny's decision did not go down well. Others who work on ReactiveUI felt she was not close to the project and had not consulted those who are.
[4]
Rodney Littles II, core maintainer of ReactiveUI and former Foundation board member, soon weighed in with a reminder about the Foundation's Code of Conduct.
[5]
[6]
We covered Littles earlier this week, noting that after he ran for the board on a platform of making it more responsive to developers' needs – rather than Microsoft's. He later [7]resigned because, according to a [8]post , "I didn't have the energy to put into an organization that doesn't share my views and stance on what I think the community needs, Sustainable Open Source Software."
Littles's post doesn't mention Novotny's actions.
[9]
But yesterday a new [10]thread , titled "DNF and its relationship with member projects", appeared and continued the criticism of the Foundation's board over issues including the below.
I feel sick to my stomach right now.
In the last two weeks, someone at [11]@dotnetfdn moved [12]@wixtoolset into the .NET Foundation's private GitHub Enterprise.
They did so after I explicitly told them I did not trust them enough to make them an admin in our project.
I feel betrayed. — Rob Mensching (@robmen) [13]October 5, 2021
Novotny's apology adds that she "overstepped”" with her decision on ReactiveUI.
Her post also addresses the use of GitHub Enterprise mentioned in the tweet above, by explaining that service gives developers "more control over their projects".
"That said, the fact that multiple people were surprised and upset means that the use of GitHub Enterprise as a tool to support projects was poorly communicated," she added. New documents are forthcoming to clarify matters.
The apology suggests Foundation members' ire may be due to their own limited knowledge of how the organisation operates.
[14]
"It is also clear that the .NET Foundation project governance model is not well understood," she wrote. "Project maintainers sign an agreement that either assigns or contributes their project to the .NET Foundation. That's the point at which project ownership changes. We'll post another document on that this week as well."
[15]Feeling saucy? Wave of Microsoft releases includes go-live licence for .NET 6
[16]Microsoft flips request to port Visual Studio Tools for Office to .NET Core from 'Sure, we'll take a look' to 'No'
[17]Microsoft has gone to great lengths to push its tech, but survey suggests many devs slipped through the .NET
[18]Faster .NET? Monster post by Microsoft software engineer shows serious improvements
The Foundation plans to distribute those documents in short order, and "hold a listening tour/town hall/something" soon. The Foundation board will also "hold a TMA (tell me anything) open call next week," the apology reveals.
The first comment on the apology describes it as "a total non-apology" – a sentiment repeated in other comments.
The conversation also features some discussion of how to withdraw projects from the Foundation.
The Register suspects the Foundation may soon need some new volunteers. Brave new volunteers. ®
Get our [19]Tech Resources
[1] https://github.com/dotnet-foundation/Home/discussions/39
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/05/microsoft_net_foundation_under_fire/
[3] https://github.com/reactiveui/splat/pull/778
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YV7FYRSs85fib9esgpFCbQAAAM8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YV7FYRSs85fib9esgpFCbQAAAM8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/05/microsoft_net_foundation_under_fire/
[8] https://rodneylittlesii.com/posts/topic/foundation-echo-chamber
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YV7FYRSs85fib9esgpFCbQAAAM8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://github.com/dotnet-foundation/Home/discussions/38
[11] https://twitter.com/dotnetfdn?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[12] https://twitter.com/wixtoolset?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[13] https://twitter.com/robmen/status/1445521876688654340?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YV7FYRSs85fib9esgpFCbQAAAM8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/15/dotnet_6_go_live/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/07/microsoft_vsto/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/06/the_state_of_net_survey/
[18] https://www.theregister.coam/2021/08/18/faster_dotnet_6/
[19] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
"I made a mistake this last week when I made a PR and merged it to a project without discussion," Novotny wrote, probably referring to [3]this merge in which she added support for reproducible builds to the open-source project ReactiveUI.
As the GitHub comments on that merge spell out, Novotny's decision did not go down well. Others who work on ReactiveUI felt she was not close to the project and had not consulted those who are.
[4]
Rodney Littles II, core maintainer of ReactiveUI and former Foundation board member, soon weighed in with a reminder about the Foundation's Code of Conduct.
[5]
[6]
We covered Littles earlier this week, noting that after he ran for the board on a platform of making it more responsive to developers' needs – rather than Microsoft's. He later [7]resigned because, according to a [8]post , "I didn't have the energy to put into an organization that doesn't share my views and stance on what I think the community needs, Sustainable Open Source Software."
Littles's post doesn't mention Novotny's actions.
[9]
But yesterday a new [10]thread , titled "DNF and its relationship with member projects", appeared and continued the criticism of the Foundation's board over issues including the below.
I feel sick to my stomach right now.
In the last two weeks, someone at [11]@dotnetfdn moved [12]@wixtoolset into the .NET Foundation's private GitHub Enterprise.
They did so after I explicitly told them I did not trust them enough to make them an admin in our project.
I feel betrayed. — Rob Mensching (@robmen) [13]October 5, 2021
Novotny's apology adds that she "overstepped”" with her decision on ReactiveUI.
Her post also addresses the use of GitHub Enterprise mentioned in the tweet above, by explaining that service gives developers "more control over their projects".
"That said, the fact that multiple people were surprised and upset means that the use of GitHub Enterprise as a tool to support projects was poorly communicated," she added. New documents are forthcoming to clarify matters.
The apology suggests Foundation members' ire may be due to their own limited knowledge of how the organisation operates.
[14]
"It is also clear that the .NET Foundation project governance model is not well understood," she wrote. "Project maintainers sign an agreement that either assigns or contributes their project to the .NET Foundation. That's the point at which project ownership changes. We'll post another document on that this week as well."
[15]Feeling saucy? Wave of Microsoft releases includes go-live licence for .NET 6
[16]Microsoft flips request to port Visual Studio Tools for Office to .NET Core from 'Sure, we'll take a look' to 'No'
[17]Microsoft has gone to great lengths to push its tech, but survey suggests many devs slipped through the .NET
[18]Faster .NET? Monster post by Microsoft software engineer shows serious improvements
The Foundation plans to distribute those documents in short order, and "hold a listening tour/town hall/something" soon. The Foundation board will also "hold a TMA (tell me anything) open call next week," the apology reveals.
The first comment on the apology describes it as "a total non-apology" – a sentiment repeated in other comments.
The conversation also features some discussion of how to withdraw projects from the Foundation.
The Register suspects the Foundation may soon need some new volunteers. Brave new volunteers. ®
Get our [19]Tech Resources
[1] https://github.com/dotnet-foundation/Home/discussions/39
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/05/microsoft_net_foundation_under_fire/
[3] https://github.com/reactiveui/splat/pull/778
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YV7FYRSs85fib9esgpFCbQAAAM8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YV7FYRSs85fib9esgpFCbQAAAM8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YV7FYRSs85fib9esgpFCbQAAAM8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/05/microsoft_net_foundation_under_fire/
[8] https://rodneylittlesii.com/posts/topic/foundation-echo-chamber
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YV7FYRSs85fib9esgpFCbQAAAM8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://github.com/dotnet-foundation/Home/discussions/38
[11] https://twitter.com/dotnetfdn?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[12] https://twitter.com/wixtoolset?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[13] https://twitter.com/robmen/status/1445521876688654340?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YV7FYRSs85fib9esgpFCbQAAAM8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/15/dotnet_6_go_live/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/07/microsoft_vsto/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/06/the_state_of_net_survey/
[18] https://www.theregister.coam/2021/08/18/faster_dotnet_6/
[19] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: What a shame
Anonymous Coward
Ouch. You mentioned SE and Monica Cellio. I reviewed all that and was struck by a comment about "the straw that broke the camel's back" I know I haven't been back there since then, getting on 2 years?
There really is a one-way binary flip for reputation. You lose it, you lose it forever. Would you trust SourceForge?
Re: What a shame
Tom Chiverton 1
Why would you trust Microsoft again even before this?
Anonymous Coward
"I didn't have the energy to put into an organization that doesn't share my views and stance on what I think the community needs, Sustainable Open Source Software."
Well it is sad but... if you play with sh*t, you kinda get sh*t on your hands no?
Hopefully choose a better project to invest your precious time in next. Hint: Microsoft, Apple, Oracle are some examples to stay away from. Even the fat squirrel currently outside my window knows this.
Novotny made a mistake
revenant
Maybe.
Reading the linked discussion it appears that the developers wanted to remain outside the foundation's direct control, but due to a problem they were having they allowed the foundation admin access to the repository.
That access was then (ab)used to grab control of the repository. It looks for all the world like they were suckered.
"I see you're having a problem with rats. If you leave the door to the henhouse open, I'll pop in and sort them out" , said the fox.
What a shame
One more ham fisted step to sour the pool for everyone. The open-source initiative by Microsoft looked like a step in a publicly acceptable direction, but long term benevolent money-making in IT seems an impossible feat for big companies.
These actions tend to be remembered for a long time (mainy because more often then not their perpetrators act as if they apologised when they in fact had not and almost never rectify their actions or at least pretend to) but somehow can't seem to present a lesson to others. Monica Celio case at Stack Overflow, the slow but frustrating progress towards alienating the open source community by the Qt company, and so on and on.
Generally there is always a choice, but quite often the choice is between the likes of Novotny and the likes of Stallman. On a morning like his I feel I need to refresh my gardening skills :(