[arch-dev-public] Moving on

[Aaron Griffin]

On Wed, Jul 2, 2008 at 1:06 PM, Travis Willard <travis at archlinux.org> wrote:
> Hey guys.
>
> I've been giving it some thought lately, and I think I need to sit
> back and assess my priorities in life.
>
> My day-job has been taking up a lot of my time lately, and events in
> my personal life have also increased of late.  That leaves little
> "free time" and I'm finding more and more lately that whenever I get
> this time free I don't feel like sitting down and spending more time
> working on Arch after working 9 to 5 in front of a PC.  As a result,
> I'm getting very little done for Arch on a day-to-day basis, and that
> doesn't feel good.  The time I do spend on Arch feels more like work,
> like an obligation than it ever used to feel.  Of the packages I
> maintain, I actually care about maybe 3.  I'm having trouble finding
> motivation.
>
> In any case, it really leaves me with two options:
> 1) drop some personal-life stuff to prioritize Arch and attempt to
> rekindle the spark I had when I first started, or
> 2) gracefully bow out of Arch "development"
>
> I have chosen the latter.

Sad times have fallen on Arch! Travis of the Northern Tundra has left
our noble ranks!

Seriously though, I do understand. We all do. It's the way of
volunteer work - it can only be important for so long. Eventually
something else will come up that is more important (a lot of times
it's those damn evil women-folk, too! heh). So don't take it too bad.

As I said to Eliott, there's always a spot for you guys here. You're
always welcome to come back, in any capacity, if things change in the
future.

> Believe it or not, it has been a difficult decision.  I love Arch, and
> the people behind it.  The distro rocks, and all you guys rock as
> well.  I think I'll miss you all.  I really want to see Arch succeed,
> and the combination of these things has kept me doing stuff for quite
> a while after it stopped being enjoyable, however now with the large
> influx of new packagers we're taking on, I think it's the right time
> for me to step back and let the new guys, each with their own fresh
> spark for Arch, to take the reins, so to speak.
>
> I toyed with the idea of taking a long sabbatical, orphaning my pkgs
> and coming back in 6 months or a year or something, but I figured it'd
> be silly to keep me around in the web interface and on the dev page
> and all that jazz when I'm not even sure whether I plan to return.  If
> I ever feel the desire to take this on again, I'll reapply like a
> normal person. ;)
>
> I'll still be around - love the community, spend more time on the
> forums while at work than I should, enjoy helping others out, etc...
> If anybody needs any quick help with anything, I'd be glad to take a
> look.
>
> The last two years have been a blast.  Keep the distro going strong
> guys; it's the best out there.

I'll keep you unmoderated on the dev-public list, in case you ever
want to pop in and say hello (assuming you stay subscribed, I dunno).

Travis, let me know if you need anything off gerolde before I disable
the account (security reasons, we all know your password is
"rainbows-and-butterflies" anyway).

Thanks for the time, it's been great. You'll be missed.

Aaron