In praise of the GDP "team"

["D. D. Brierton" <darren dzr-web com>]

Hello there. Two things:

First, as I've never posted to this list before despite having been
lurking on it for quite a few months now I'd better introduce myself. My
name is Darren Brierton, and I've been hoping to lend a hand and
generally make myself useful in some small way for ages now, but I'm
afraid I've just been swamped work-wise and it looks like I will
continue to be for a while yet. Still, in the hope that soonish I may
have some time this is what I may have to offer: I'm a web developer and
have a good knowledge of PHP, (X)HTML, XML (and XSLT etc.), CSS and
Javascript. There is no particular app that needs docs that I have set
my eye on yet, but I may be able to help in other ways. (I have been
thinking about what may be done with CSS and javascript to make what's
output to a help browser prettier and more interactive, but lets leave
that until the traumas of getting GNOME 2 out of the door are over and
done with.) Before being a web developer I was an academic: I lectured
Philosophy and Cognitive Science at the University of Edinburgh and the
University of Leeds, so I guess my writing style should be reasonably
okay.

Second, recently there have been two strongly worded emails to this list
accusing either the entire GDP "team", or at least certain members, of
elitism, cliquishness etc. I have no wish to berate the authors of those
emails; both have since retracted much of what they said and both have
apologised for the unfortunate tone that they used. I think that we all
know what it's like to say something in the heat of the moment when we
are feeling frustrated that we later regret, and I think the best thing
is to leave it at that. Nevertheless, it seems only inevitable to me
that several very approachable and hard-working members of this project
must be feeling pretty stung by what was said, and I felt compelled to
write and say how impressed by and appreciative of what you do I am. It
is clear from this mailing list that there is an incredible drive and
determination to solve key core issues (the catalogs issue for example:
God only knows my XML and SGML catalogs are a disaster area, and I'm
meant to be working with XML and SGML for a living!). It is also clear
that there is painstaking devotion to detail. But more than that, it
strikes me that everyone on this list is incredibly approachable, and
generous with their time. I, and I suspect I speak for many many others,
would like to thank you for that. I hope the unfortunate outbursts have
not given a bitter taste to all your efforts. Please believe that you
are doing something very much appreciated, even if you don't always get
to hear that.

Best, Darren

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D. D. Brierton            darren dzr-web com           www.dzr-web.com
        Trying is the first step before failure (Homer Simpson)
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