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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

#181

Post by rekado »

srtjstjsj wrote: post #168
rekado wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There is a systemic cost: the cumulative effect of encouraging the expectation to find things on Github. It also costs time to maintain an additional remote if you want to interact with potential contributors.

Using Github only to say "hey, don't forget about this piece of software that you shouldn't be looking for on Github" is a terrible habit as it artificially inflates the importance of Github for Free Software and ... we already have search engines for that kind of thing.

Re: Why we never thank open source maintainers

#182

Post by _sqhj »

jmcdiesel wrote: post #175
_sqhj wrote: post #122

As an author of dozens of open-source projects, I was really surprised how entitled / rude people can be. I was even told f-word just because I used babel for compiling JS. I was like WTF. Some people act as if they are my paying customers when I get zero compensation from my open source projects. I just share my work because I think they can be useful for some. I don't have any obligations to solve their problems.

Keep in mind, the entitlement works both ways... This isnt just for you, more of a general thing. Ive seen it a lot in this thread alone. Creating an OSS project doesn't entitle you to be treated a certain way either. Nothing does. Being entitled at ALL is bad, so expecting good or bad is just a waste. I try to live more by the "give everything you can, expect nothing in return, be grateful if something comes" mental…

I don't want any thank you notes. Never asked and never will. I just don't like people who are rude, and I find them annoying. I don't know what's wrong with feeling annoyed by them being rude to me.

Re: Why we never thank open source maintainers

#183

Post by DelightOne »

rexf wrote: post #159
PuffinBlue wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I run a support forum for an open source project. The maintainer does something similar and it can annoy some people to get no for an answer but it keeps things sane. The software has been going well for 8+ years now (with one change of maintainer in that time). We also implemented a Feature Request forum and people generally use it. Plus 'Issues' are turned off on GitHub. So things generally funnel very well through…

> So things generally funnel very well through the forum/mailing list and you know that a post in the Feature Request forum will request a feature, so you can mentally prepare for it. That helps address the under appreciated mental cost for dealing with an open ended inbox. If you don't know whether the new message is related to 1.) expression of gratitude, 2.) complaining, 3.) feature request, etc., you have an adde…

> That helps address the under appreciated mental cost for dealing with an open ended inbox.

> you have an added amount of anxiety when opening the message to figure out which kind it is.

I'm pretty sure thats a symptom.

Re: Why we never thank open source maintainers

#184

Post by jmcdiesel »

Clubber wrote: post #179
jmcdiesel wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind, the entitlement works both ways... This isnt just for you, more of a general thing. Ive seen it a lot in this thread alone. Creating an OSS project doesn't entitle you to be treated a certain way either. Nothing does. Being entitled at ALL is bad, so expecting good or bad is just a waste. I try to live more by the "give everything you can, expect nothing in return, be grateful if something comes" mental…

I would say if you are giving a gift to someone who wants / needs it, you are entitled to a little courtesy.

Nah, you're not.

Entitlement only leads to disapointment. It's bad all around, from my perspective.

You can't be entitled to something AND appreciate it at the same time. So, a lack of entitlement of being treated well leads to appreciating more when you are treated well.

If nothing else, its a fun sociology/psychology conversation.

Re: Why we never thank open source maintainers

#185

Post by jmcdiesel »

_sqhj wrote: post #182
jmcdiesel wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind, the entitlement works both ways... This isnt just for you, more of a general thing. Ive seen it a lot in this thread alone. Creating an OSS project doesn't entitle you to be treated a certain way either. Nothing does. Being entitled at ALL is bad, so expecting good or bad is just a waste. I try to live more by the "give everything you can, expect nothing in return, be grateful if something comes" mental…

I don't want any thank you notes. Never asked and never will. I just don't like people who are rude, and I find them annoying. I don't know what's wrong with feeling annoyed by them being rude to me.

Because being annoyed doesn't affect them, only you.

Choosing to experience negative emotion because someone does something is self-harm.

When you are entitled to something, you expect it, and you can't expect something and be truly appreciative of it at the same time. When you don't expect good though, the bad doesn't upset you, and the good, you actually genuinely appreciate.

Re: Why we never thank open source maintainers

#187

Post by wolfgke »

hutzlibu wrote: post #155
wolfgke wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that it is hard to transfer money over the internet. I just wanted to know what bureaucratic hurdles one has to jump in Germany to even be able to receive donations on your webpage. I don't want to go into the gory details, but just come with something that I say for years very often: The surest way to become a terrorist very fast is to read up into law. And this is only for being legally able to recei…

Can you go more into your problems, because as far as I know, it is actually not that complicated. Unless of course, you say you are non profit - then they have to accept that, complicated, yes. But if you want small donation money for a webpage, it is very easy. You register a small company for it (cost 20-30€, time 20 minutes at the finance agency. and you can use that company for many other similar things). And th…

> But if you want small donation money for a webpage, it is very easy. You register a small company for it (cost 20-30€, time 20 minutes at the finance agency. and you can use that company for many other similar things).

Which makes the tax declaration much more complicated. Additionally this can easily cause lots of trouble with the employment contract.

Re: Why we never thank open source maintainers

#188

Post by GordonS »

sheetjs wrote: post #38
inglor wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Send them quotes back: "I'm glad you liked it, I have X hours to dedicate to project Y this month. If you'd like, I'm willing to work on that feature for you under terms Z". People _pay_. You'd be surprised just how much of Chromium and other open ssource projects is written by consulting companies paid by third parties to solve a use case.

> People _pay_. From our experience ( http://sheetjs.com/ , our major open source library is https://github.com/SheetJS/js-xlsx ), even with multinational corporations, they move heaven and earth to find another free solution, or spend in-house time to hack together a solution and try to sucker you into helping them, but paying is by and large the last option.

As someone working for a huge multinational, the reason for this is that purchasing 'non-standard' software or services is an absolute nightmare. It can take months of back and forth, to and from, getting passed from pillar to post.. eventually you just give up!

Re: Why we never thank open source maintainers

#189

Post by joonhocho »

jmcdiesel wrote: post #185
_sqhj wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want any thank you notes. Never asked and never will. I just don't like people who are rude, and I find them annoying. I don't know what's wrong with feeling annoyed by them being rude to me.

Because being annoyed doesn't affect them, only you. Choosing to experience negative emotion because someone does something is self-harm. When you are entitled to something, you expect it, and you can't expect something and be truly appreciative of it at the same time. When you don't expect good though, the bad doesn't upset you, and the good, you actually genuinely appreciate.

I didn't expect anything, but your comments still let me down, and I find you annoying.

Re: Why we never thank open source maintainers

#190

Post by notzorbo3 »

davidjnelson wrote: post #107
notzorbo3 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an awesome way to reward people! I've gotten offers for money, but actually getting to money to me is more of a hassle than it's worth, so I just decline.

What makes receiving money difficult?

Not being in the US, not trusting PayPal and wanting absolutely nothing to do with any kind of blockchain currency.

It's interesting that we have much simpler payment methods available in the EU, but apparently EU people don't like to pay for things.

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