Last week: http://blog.rburchell.com/2014/08/sa...sh-waters.html

And thanks for your kind words

So, feeling burnt-out due to the workload/pace, just wanted to try something completely diff/new, or something else?

Not a problem, I absolutely meant it!

We're heading pretty far into offtopic, but let's just say I consider it an extended holiday a long time coming

Oh I see, so purely personal reasons, not the working env. per-say.

Cheers.

Looking closely, he didn't state his reasons for leaving at all. Just so that we're clear on that. He didn't tell us what his reasons were. Of course he is perfectly entitled to withhold the reason, but there is no explanation, no reason given, so we can't really assume it was personal reasons either. He didn't explain, all he said is the work ended for reasons unspecified and he is now looking for a job.

It could be the working environment, it could be Jolla's finances, it could be a fixed-length employment ending, of course it could be personal or many things. It does seem unlikely it was a work relationship gone bad, since he does seem to want to leave on good terms, but that's speculation.

But jalyst, the reason I wanted to join the discussion was to complement you when you nailed it on the previous page about Jolla's comms, though, which are a bit like the vague posts by w00t:

Too much of their "openness" and "transparency" is actually just marketing fluff and nothing more. Difficult or uncomfortable topics are rarely discussed even semi-openly. Given how many Jolla people still roam these places, it is especially noteworthy how only silence or platitudes meet certain topics, while others have a bunch of Jolla people cheering on in any given social media.

I guess they don't realize how much some of that fluff stings when it is posted after a silence regarding a difficult issue. It just adds insult to the injury: "Hey we ignored you, but here's some marketing fluff instead! You rock!" I can sense some love maybe within Jolla (self-love?), but less respect and transparency. And that kind of makes the love turn sour.

Anyone starting a new, open FOSS phone company, maybe you should tag-line it: "We're unlike Jolla."

Jolla, be unlike Jolla from now on. Please. Culture of openness isn't hard, it is just a very deliberate choice.

Thank you, jalyst for pointing that out so well and constructively.

That would require to resolve all those smelly cases they've put under the carpet and are getting more and more rotten with every day.

It's hard to believe when someone says that from now on he will be clean and won't get dirty, but hasn't taken and doesn't plan to take a shower anytime soon.

Unfortunately things are not as easy as you think they are. There are investor relationships, NDA's, ODM, ... to take into account. Also not all Jolla sailors are very eloquent (I am definitely not one of those eloquent ones) and that makes that things are often misunderstood (or twisted by some people). So people are very wary of creating expectations, as it is a lot easier to say something than do it. We are all very busy, which means that we don't know all what is going on everywhere. So while there might be Jolla sailors around, they will have to go around and ask other sailors what the situation about question x is. And even then it is hard to know what you can tell or not. Some topics also get silence because we honestly don't know or cannot give a definite answer as things might depend a lot on external factors out of our (direct) control. The battery availability is one such thing for example. I don't disagree there is room for improvement but things like that take time. And even then, there will always be people who want every last detail and if we would go indulge that we would just be answering questions instead of developing and fixing bugs.

Even if openness and transparency are highly regarded, there are limits on how much effort should be put on just answering questions. Looking at the big picture, what we have got a boatload of updates and improvements in very short time frame. Things have to be balanced, there's really no point on explaining and discussing some specific hw-issue just for sake of discussion.

Of course it could be done by hiring a person to just chit chat on TMO but it wouldn't suffice because people seem to want developers to explain every detail to them and everything at once without any regard to it's effect on development work. And even if it was done outside "work hours", it wouldn't be sustainable. Everybody needs some time to detatch from work and to do something else to balance things out. Personally, this is something I'm a bit worried - will people at Jolla be worn out too soon with current development speed?

With a new product name and or brand stratergy they could go far.

Also, woot did a great job on his free time?. WHO within jolla dare to step up and take his place?

Personally, I can't see what jolla trying to do...strategy wise ... since I no longer hear anything from them or their CEO. But I guess they are doing something. Let's hope they live to fight another day.

If Jolla sailors would spend half the time they spend on kicking people out from IRC, Facebook, email comms and community events, maybe they'd have time to provide some actual information in social media?

http://www.merproject.org/logs/%23jo...05-28T21:16:37

Is Stskeeps really Jolla's Chief Research Engineer and that's how he rolls? Well, I guess we can call that being brutally open at least. No hiding one's views there. Perhaps Jolla has a new theme song: Boten Jolla.

Jolla kan banna, banna dig så hårt.

Seriously, though, the responses in this thread point out very well the kind of lacking openness culture Jolla seems to have. When people have a hard time knowing when they can say something, and thus don't say anything, that keeps feeding itself. If this empty space is then filled simply with feelgood fluff, it will eventually look simply bad, if it seems like real issues are being ignored instead of communicated about. And if the trigger-finger with bans and shuns is too happy, the community will soon be limited to yes-men.

I have a hard time believing NDAs or investors explain it all, nor does lack of time. It seems there is a deliberate decision to keep pretty much all controversial topics very close to vest and to control "the movement" through carefully selected activities, topics and forums, because select topics do get plenty of attention. Nobody here is asking Jolla's team to answer each and every detail and spend their days online, nor to reveal secret business plans (although I guess some changes in comms strategy for the latter could be useful as the community is getting restless, but that's beside my point). None of that is not necessary for meaningfully increased openness.

I'm fairly certain that if the likes of Dillon or Pienimäki really wanted Jolla to be more open about some of the difficult issues, especially now that Jolla still is in the early adopter phase, they could make it happen easily. Equally, I'm sure it is harder for the grunt in the trenches, if that example from the top doesn't exist and people are afraid to open their mouths except to yell "you rock" at others (and themselves). It seems like a leadership decision to not be so open and then the organization follows suit. Maybe this works for Jolla, it is their decision of course, but to me it does seem like a wasted opportunity. Goodwill and useful community participation is being lost.

Eventually that "you rock" starts to sound a little tired and values like "transparency" non-existent if it really just means you use it a lot in your user interface.

Don't ruin this, Jolla. Please.