[FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] doc: add a few note for sponsorship candidates.

[wm4]

On Fri, 20 Mar 2015 10:43:55 +0100
Stefano Sabatini <stefasab at gmail.com> wrote:

> On date Friday 2015-03-20 09:57:58 +0100, wm4 encoded:
> > On Thu, 19 Mar 2015 20:43:55 -0400
> > "Ronald S. Bultje" <rsbultje at gmail.com> wrote:
> > 
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 4:53 PM, Nicolas George <george at nsup.org> wrote:
> > > 
> > > > +If at any point you have any question, do not hesitate to ask them.
> > > > +Actually, yes, hesitate a few seconds, in case this question will make you
> > > > +look dump. So read on.
> > > >
> > > 
> > > s/dump/dumb/.
> > > 
> > > Also, I'm not sure that's a good attitude, we surely want students to be
> > > able to look up google'able stuff themselves, but asking questions to their
> > > mentor should be encouraged (and if the mentor thinks it's goole'able, he
> > > should feel comfortable saying so).
> > 
> 
> > +1
> > 
> > Sure, we require the candidates to think on their own (and experience
> > shows that unfortunately shows that they don't always do), but this
> > language is just offensive and also seems to discourage asking
> > questions at all. Maybe rephrase it as something like "While GSoC
> > attendants should be able to solve problems on their own, it's OK to
> > ask questions if you're stuck." See, now we don't think you're dumb
> > anymore, but yes we expect that you put some effort into it.
> 
> I don't think this is offensive but smart candidates will figure when
> and how to ask good questions by themselves, being told explicitly
> would be annoying for them.
> 
> Also the focus is not about smart/silly, it is about finding a good
> tradeoff between mentee and mentor's time effort when asking/replying
> to a question. In general mentors' time is precious (because they're
> usually busy and/or are delivering their free time), so the
> candidate/mentee should do most of the effort, and ask questions only
> when he/she's put some efforts into trying to solve an issue, and show
> this effort when putting out the question.

Of course, but telling a candidate that his question may be interpreted
as dumb is the wrong way to go about it. It sound dismissive and
unfriendly. Making demands is ok, but premature "punishment" or
prejudice is not. (Yeah, we know most candidates will probably be bad,
but there's no reason to repel potentially good ones just out of
pessimism.)

> So, adding my two cents:
> 
> "GSoC attendants should be able to solve problems on their own, but
> it's fine to ask questions if you're stuck or if you are not sure
> about your task. When asking questions, you are also expected to show
> how are you trying to solve the related issue."

Sounds ok to me.