Sec: Unclassified - Ubuntu docteam

[Stoffers, Robert LAC]

A funny thing happen to me last night, I received a gift from the KDE docteam for some work I had done for them in the past (a book) and I stopped by their freenode irc channel to thank them. The moment I told them I was with the Ubuntu docteam everyone in the channel thought to themselves "here we go again..." and started having a go at me. It wasn't until I explained to them who I actually was (and the fact I have a good standing with them helped) did they stop and apologise. It seems a member of the Ubuntu docteam, who I won't identify, had been there recently telling them that everything he was *going to write* was better then anything they had and that they all will be using it. I then spent the next 20 minutes apologising on behalf of that member.

I think some people who are part of the Ubuntu docteam need a reality check. Not only is this behaviour completely unprofessional but it is also rude and reflects poorly on both the Ubuntu docteam and Ubuntu in general. Has that person stopped to take a look at what we have at this point in time in svn regarding Kubuntu? We all know the answer is "not much" and besides that there is no need for this behaviour anyway. We would gain much by working with other docteams and vice-versa, not criticising them. These people live and breathe KDE, to that member I say "wake up to yourself".
I believe it is not the responsibility of the Ubuntu docteam to write documents for KDE, GNOME or Debian. Each of these project have their own docteam, if you want to have your documents included with those projects I suggest you join one of the relevant docteams. The same goes with other applications too. The Ubuntu docteam should stick to writing Ubuntu documents with the existing licenses and tools in place. Discussion should be about what is best for Ubuntu documentation, not what's best for Debian or anyone else for that matter. 
There are members of this team that are doing excellent work and are conducting themselves in a professional manner. The sad fact of life is that it only takes the actions of a few to spoil it for the whole. I think everyone needs to go back and read the Ubuntu Code of Conduct at http://www.ubuntulinux.org/community/conduct and take this into account in future.
Robert Stoffers