Hi all,
I’ve decided to step down from my position as a NixOS foundation board member, and as a Nix maintainer.
I joined the board a couple of years ago, at the request of the previous board, with the intent of supporting the community and helping it organise as it was growing.
I founded the Nix maintenance team a few months after that to make the maintenance of Nix more sustainable, and allow other people to contribute – and eventually maintain – more easily.
It has been a long journey, where I have, as much as I could, tried to bring my contribution to improve upon these two goals.
The recent drama-crazyness that spawned in the community a few months ago has killed my motivation to keep contributing.
I have been truly amazed and inspired by the overall commitment of most community members in improving things and keeping the boat afloat – whatever their vision of a successful community was. But I have also been deeply hurt by some behaviours, when people considered that pushing for their own idea of a successful community was worth spreading hate, defamation, fear and exclusion, or by the (too recurrent) thinking that one’s own agenda was more important than honesty, truth, and care for the others.
Because of that, I need to take at the very least some extended vacation away from the community.
This means that it is now time for me to pass on my responsibilities.
I’ve already in effect stopped acting as a Nix maintainer a few weeks go due to personal constraints.
I will remain part of the Foundation board until 2024-09-01 as it wouldn’t make much sense to transition during the assembly process, but with a minimal engagement and then leave my seat.
I’ve also – as @balsoft just anounced – resigned from my role of Nix group lead at Tweag.
Before leaving, I would like to apologize to anyone I have wronged in the community, whether it is by my actions or my lack thereof.
There is a lot of work to be done in the community as a whole. I hope that the work I’ve done has been – overall – going in the right direction, but I am also painfully aware that it hasn’t always been the case, and that I haven’t done nearly enough to make things go better. And for that I’m deeply sorry.
I would also like to thank all the community members for being part of that adventure with me, and for their dedication to the community.
In particular, I want to thank the board and the Nix maintenance team members – both current and past – whith whom I’ve worked the most closely.
Neither maintenance nor board work is a fun job, and both can be quite ungrateful, especially in the long run. Yet, they have all saved their best time and talent for it.
Let’s make the world a better place (with Nix or not)! And if anybody wants, I’m always available for chats, at least by email at theophane {at} hufschmitt {dot} net.
Love,
Théophane
