Experience does matter, but I think the fact that we have a problem bringing new people into the process is a sign that our process needs work and our documentation needs work. With the concern of vetting people for experience, that should be part of the onboarding process - and then giving them tasks based on that experience - not excluding them from the work or team.
Unfortunately, Talk and IRC and Telegram aren’t always the best means for communication. When working with a larger group, it just sometimes is best to have real-time conversation once in awhile to fully understand where improvements need to be made and to be in agreement on direction. Uberconference is recorded and available publicly. If we announce when the call will happen, that is public as well and anyone interested can join. It’s not up to a single person to decide how members in the community communicate. If a group of people want to have a real time conversation, and one person refuses to join that, then that’s okay - the group can still proceed with a call and share their conversation in another format as a summary or talk thread or any other way for others to catch up.
Many of us have to use a variety of methods because of situations we are in and timing constraints. We must accept that some of our conversations happen organically because we work together over a variety of projects and talk through multiple things together when the opportunity arises. It’s not intended to exclude anyone or make decisions without anyone else. As long as those conversations and decisions come back through the community, then it’s public. There are many Talk threads, uberconference discussions, etc that are happening regarding infrastructure that people can take part in - no one is being kept in the dark. We all have the same goals here.
Etherpad is a public documentation of the discussions, same as Talk. Just a different format that can be used real-time during calls so everyone can contribute to the documentation of the meeting.
The vetting of people should not be “deny people who are new” but rather “let’s discover what they have to offer in skills and judgment and get them working at the right level based on that.”
@maurya is helping better understand about what folks want out of the helpdesk application. He’s just doing some initial research and will be talking about it next week. There is plenty of time for comment and input and feedback from everyone. It’s great work and I expect you to be supportive of him doing it because it will really help the infrastructure team and those using the helpdesk.