On Thu, Aug 30, 2018 at 9:24 PM, Jeff King <peff@xxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Thu, Aug 30, 2018 at 01:46:00PM +0200, Johannes Schindelin wrote: > >> I am willing to mentor, and the only reason that kept me from already >> stepping forward and trying to brush up the landing page is this concern: >> traditionally, we (as in: the core Git contributors) have been less than >> successful in attracting and retaining contributors from under-represented >> groups. I don't think any regular reader of this mailing list can deny >> that. >> >> And while I find it very important to reach out (there are just *so* many >> benefits to having a more diverse team), I have to ask *why* we are so >> unsuccessful. As long as we do not even know the answer to that, is it >> even worth pursuing Outreachy? >> >> I mean, if we make serious mistakes here, without even realizing, that >> directly lead to being stuck in our old bubble, then we are prone to >> simply repeat those mistakes over and over and over again. And that would >> just be a waste of our time, *and* a big de-motivator for the Outreachy >> students. >> >> What's your take on this? > > My feeling is that our lack of diversity has less to do with driving out > diverse candidates, and more that they do not join in the first place. I agree with that. > Which isn't to say we _wouldn't_ drive out diversity, but that I'm not > sure we have very good data on what happens in that second stage. Maybe we could ask Olga in CC what we could do better? > If we > can use the program to overcome "step 1", that helps us get that data > (and hopefully react to it in time to be useful, and not just use the > candidate as a guinea pig; I agree there is the possibility of doing > more harm than good to a student who becomes de-motivated). I agree. > That leaves aside the question of whether things we are doing prevent > people from participating in the first place. I'm certainly open to that > idea, but I think it's a separate discussion. Yeah, I think there is a lot we could do to improve in this area and it would help.
