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Why we never thank open source maintainers

windsooon.github.io

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Re: Why we never thank open source maintainers

#161

Post by j_s »

It would be nice if more of the communication with maintainers was done in public. Then discussions such as these could be filled with links demonstrating best practices (or suggestions) in action. (Some people like me may be wary of tying their HN account so permanently to a project.)

Right now in this discussion there are a lot of recommendations but without knowing more about the context in which they are applied it is hard to take them seriously. Specifically, are commenters making the suggestion having put it into practice in an open source project/community, and (if so) what impact has it had there?

As an attempt to provide something similar to what I am suggesting, here is an anonymized conversation regarding a tool I have barely maintained for a few years (merging bug fixes). The tool is used by many database administrators so not programmers but technical. It provides some of the functionality that commercial software charges hundreds of dollars to provide, so it is easy to suggest paying someone else real money to solve any problems.

>On Sat, Jul 4 at 8:06 AM, Maintainer (me) wrote:

I will not be able to resolve these issues in what it sounds like is the timeframe you need.

My recommendation would be that you install the trial version of a tool on the list of commercial alternatives (link). One that I have very limited experience with is [specific recommended alternative]. The page also lists all of the free tools that I am aware of.

Thanks for reporting these problems; I will create issues to track the progress of resolving them.

>On Fri, July 3, User wrote / forwarded:

Can you please help me?

>On Fri, Jul 3, User (#2?) wrote:

I'm getting another one issue. Ie the [tool] generate the script like

"ALTER TABLE ... ALTER COLUMN ... [bigint] IDENTITY (1,1) NOT NULL".

While i'm executing this script i'm getting error like "Msg 156, Level 15, State 1, Line 1

Incorrect syntax near the keyword 'IDENTITY'".

[tool] generate a is wrong one? Let me know the reason for this one . and Please address the above issues . I'm eagerly wait for your response.

Re: Why we never thank open source maintainers

#162

Post by oblib »

I have to admit I haven't sent a personal note to all of them that I should, not even close, but I have to a few.

I have asked a few for help or clarification too and thanked those who responded. And I have bought a few a beer or beverage of their choice when I could by donating, but that's really not much at all for what I got.

I have never asked anyone to add a feature or fix a bug, but I've not run into to many. I have offered a few hacks when I thought they were worthy of review but it's been a pretty long time since I've done that.

Since it's "Thanksgiving Day" here I will say I am very thankful for the work they do and freely give, and I know I couldn't do what I do without them. Not even.

It's truly an amazing thing for me. I grew up building "custom cars" and worked my ass off to buy tools to make things. Early on I spent at least half of every paycheck to buy tools.

Now, I use tools that are "free" and it's amazing what you can build with them.

Very little in the history of man can compare to it. It's one of the most amazing and best things I've ever seen happen and I've lived in one of the most amazing eras ever.

Re: Why we never thank open source maintainers

#163

Post by billmalarky »

inglor wrote: post #9

Actually, in all projects I've been involved in I've gotten more than enough thank you emails. Not to mention hooks for consulting gigs (which I dislike and _rarely_ do), conference invites and job offers. Open source has been _tremendously_ cost-effective for me. I do it for fun and because I genuinely like building open tools people like using. This is me https://github.com/benjamingr https://stackoverflow.com/user…

Thanks for working on bluebird, it's a great library :-)

Re: Why we never thank open source maintainers

#164

Post by olejorgenb »

Tehnix wrote: post #149
_jcwu wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what is the issue with just telling them that it could take a lot of work, so probably not? Why does it bother you if someone says thanks? It does not put you in any obligation to do anything... I do not understand your point of view. Should we stop saying thanks in our daily life? Because it does not really do anything for anyone.... To me the following two messages give off two totally different vibes: 'Hi, can…

> 'Hi, can you implement ? Thanks!' and > 'Can you implement ?' Are very differently loaded questions! The first one very much indicates no concern about the implementers time, and is very often seen coming from people that have no idea the complexity of the work involved with the "Thansk!" indicating the implementer would automatically accept it regardless of their own priority, while the second one is way more inno…

Agreed, the "thanks" feels a bit like the user have "paid" for the feature simply by giving an upfront thanks. The thanks is for the new feature, not for the _existing_ features.

Something like:

> I really like NAME-OF-PROGRAM. Thanks for making it! > > One thing that would make it even better for me would be FEATURE-X. What do you think?

would be much better.

Putting some effort into the request/suggestion also helps. Eg. giving a well written rationale/use case. Saying why existing-feature-Y isn't enough, etc.

Re: Why we never thank open source maintainers

#167

Post by wzsddtc »

sheetjs wrote: post #127
boxerab wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes, the sense of entitlement of some people is very surprising.

"If you give a mouse a cookie, the mouse will ask for a glass of milk"

In Chinese it's give people an inch and they would want a foot.

Re: Why we never thank open source maintainers

#168

Post by srtjstjsj »

rekado wrote: post #25
speps wrote: post #7

BTW this is actually to promote this: http://www.thankyouopensource.com/ Putting the link here might make it more obvious.

It's a pity that this website is exclusively for repositories on Github and thus contributes to the harmful idea that free software only exists when it is on Github.

eh, github is hosted git, it costs approximately nothing to export your project to github, and it's a great way to "market" your project.

Re: Why we never thank open source maintainers

#169

Post by srtjstjsj »

bnastic wrote: post #57

It’s such an unfortunate word to use, “maintainer”... Sounds like a thing that had reached its full potential long ago and the “maintainer” is there to keep it on the road in one piece, for a while yet. It’ll never get better, it’s only ever downhill from there. (Admittedly, that does describe a certain %age of open source projects).

That's exactly the maintainer's job. To keep it alive while the world is changing, so the software can continue delivering value. The maintainer might also be a developer, or other people might be developers, or possibly no one is developing that project.

Re: Why we never thank open source maintainers

#170

Post by majewsky »

olejorgenb wrote: post #164
Tehnix wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 'Hi, can you implement ? Thanks!' and > 'Can you implement ?' Are very differently loaded questions! The first one very much indicates no concern about the implementers time, and is very often seen coming from people that have no idea the complexity of the work involved with the "Thansk!" indicating the implementer would automatically accept it regardless of their own priority, while the second one is way more inno…

Agreed, the "thanks" feels a bit like the user have "paid" for the feature simply by giving an upfront thanks. The thanks is for the new feature, not for the _existing_ features. Something like: > I really like NAME-OF-PROGRAM. Thanks for making it! > > One thing that would make it even better for me would be FEATURE-X. What do you think? would be much better. Putting some effort into the request/suggestion also help…

I don't know. When I get bugreports, I usually prefer people who cut to the chase instead of wasting my time with salutations.
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