Feedback on adding a new language to Gnome

[Нарт Лӏыша <daniel abzakh gmail com>]

Hello,

I hope this email finds you well.

On the 13th of the July, I sent an email to gnome-i18n to add a new language with the title "New team for Abkhazian (ab)".

I followed the guideline here: https://wiki.gnome.org/TranslationProject/StartingATeam , getting no response, I sent a follow-up message few days later, I got the following response: "Please take into account that people can be on vacation now. Just give them some days to work it out.

Thanks in advance for your patience."

I waited few more days, still no answer, then I decided to raise the issue in i18n-gnome chat, I got similar answer that people are on a vacation, unintentionally I almost got myself in a heated argument, but I decided to retract to de-escilate the situation!

Here my feedback in the following points:

1. From a newcomers perspective, these are not positive signs that would make me feel welcomed! It's off putting!

2. Giving answers such as "people on vacation", is not satisfactory! Imagine in a situation where I work in an organisation, trying to adopt open source and free software, and my boss is waiting for results then I give her/him such excuse! The first impression she/he would get is: "this is not a serious project that we would want to invest our time and resources in!"

3. I think Public Relations is a vitale part in any project, I understand that people have different characters and attitudes, and that is why there should be a special team that handles this stuff.

4. Being a volunteer doesn't give you the card planche to be rude to people, and you shouldn't give yourself any excuse to be impolite! The attitude should always be to de-escalate

5. Think of open source and free software as if you are running a business, and behave accordingly.

Thank you for Reading this message.

Regards, 

Nart.