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Why We Engage in FLOSS: Answers from Core Developers

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11–20 of 63 posts

Re: Why We Engage in FLOSS: Answers from Core Developers

#11
From the article (fig. 13a)

Motivations: - To improve the project because I am using it - To have a volunteer work - I have interest or expertise on the project domain

Project characteristics: - Friendly community - Availability of the project leaders - Unit tests

Barriers: - Lack of time of project leaders - Large and complex project - Unclear, complex or buggy code

Re: Why We Engage in FLOSS: Answers from Core Developers

#12

I've never understood it. I've only had horrific experiences with my open source efforts. From the simplest cases like being ignored on PRs and tickets to mockery in social circles for algorithmic mistakes to finding out my work was enabling bad people to finding out people were misrepresenting my employment status while using my work in violation of the license, I don't think I've ever once had a positive experience…

Funny, I've had the exact opposite experience. Maybe you were just trying to associate with poorly-led projects?

Edit: Not all open source projects have shitty leaders, but some do, and it's not always obvious which ones those are until you've invested some non-zero amount of time/effort into it.

Re: Why We Engage in FLOSS: Answers from Core Developers

#13

I've never understood it. I've only had horrific experiences with my open source efforts. From the simplest cases like being ignored on PRs and tickets to mockery in social circles for algorithmic mistakes to finding out my work was enabling bad people to finding out people were misrepresenting my employment status while using my work in violation of the license, I don't think I've ever once had a positive experience…

Funny, I've had the exact opposite experience. Maybe you were just trying to associate with poorly-led projects? Edit: Not all open source projects have shitty leaders, but some do, and it's not always obvious which ones those are until you've invested some non-zero amount of time/effort into it.

Perhaps, I should not be surprised the first response here is, "Well maybe that's your fault for not having a crystal ball which can predict the actions of strangers." That attitude is part of the problem. Similarly, "My experience was fine, so clearly your bad experience needs to be invalidated" is a toxic attitude.

Re: Why We Engage in FLOSS: Answers from Core Developers

#14

I've never understood it. I've only had horrific experiences with my open source efforts. From the simplest cases like being ignored on PRs and tickets to mockery in social circles for algorithmic mistakes to finding out my work was enabling bad people to finding out people were misrepresenting my employment status while using my work in violation of the license, I don't think I've ever once had a positive experience…

This feels like you were forcing yourself to contribute for whatever reason.

The best results are when you are genuinely interested in your work and in the process of making software better.

Re: Why We Engage in FLOSS: Answers from Core Developers

#15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny, I've had the exact opposite experience. Maybe you were just trying to associate with poorly-led projects? Edit: Not all open source projects have shitty leaders, but some do, and it's not always obvious which ones those are until you've invested some non-zero amount of time/effort into it.

Perhaps, I should not be surprised the first response here is, "Well maybe that's your fault for not having a crystal ball which can predict the actions of strangers." That attitude is part of the problem. Similarly, "My experience was fine, so clearly your bad experience needs to be invalidated" is a toxic attitude.

Well, there are literally millions of people who don't share your same experience, so rather than claim that everyone is wrong and open source development doesn't work, maybe you are doing something wrong. Just a suggestion, because it totally does work for many people. Maybe you just have to find the right group of people to work with. There are a few shitty projects, but you'll find bad apples in many areas of life.

Re: Why We Engage in FLOSS: Answers from Core Developers

#16
post #14

I've never understood it. I've only had horrific experiences with my open source efforts. From the simplest cases like being ignored on PRs and tickets to mockery in social circles for algorithmic mistakes to finding out my work was enabling bad people to finding out people were misrepresenting my employment status while using my work in violation of the license, I don't think I've ever once had a positive experience…

This feels like you were forcing yourself to contribute for whatever reason. The best results are when you are genuinely interested in your work and in the process of making software better.

Some of the projects were in fact my original work. I was genuinely interested.

I get similar negative feedback for writing, often. I don't write issue reports on github because I'm tired of people being angry at me for reporting problems or being derisive because I don't have the workarounds they didn't write down.

Re: Why We Engage in FLOSS: Answers from Core Developers

#17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps, I should not be surprised the first response here is, "Well maybe that's your fault for not having a crystal ball which can predict the actions of strangers." That attitude is part of the problem. Similarly, "My experience was fine, so clearly your bad experience needs to be invalidated" is a toxic attitude.

Well, there are literally millions of people who don't share your same experience, so rather than claim that everyone is wrong and open source development doesn't work, maybe you are doing something wrong. Just a suggestion, because it totally does work for many people. Maybe you just have to find the right group of people to work with. There are a few shitty projects, but you'll find bad apples in many areas of life…

> so rather than claim that everyone is wrong

I didn't. This is your inability to tolerate a different viewpoint. I didn't say you had a bad experience, just that I can't relate to the good ones. I qualified every statement with _I_, _my experience_, and _feel_ and you're still willing to stand up and argue with me about it.

And that is, in fact, a toxic attitude. You're arguing that I'm neither allowed to have nor relate negative experiences.

Stop doing that. Stop doing what you're doing right now. It serves no purpose other than to further embed this toxic attitude into a community you obviously love and want to represent positively.

Re: Why We Engage in FLOSS: Answers from Core Developers

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny, I've had the exact opposite experience. Maybe you were just trying to associate with poorly-led projects? Edit: Not all open source projects have shitty leaders, but some do, and it's not always obvious which ones those are until you've invested some non-zero amount of time/effort into it.

Perhaps, I should not be surprised the first response here is, "Well maybe that's your fault for not having a crystal ball which can predict the actions of strangers." That attitude is part of the problem. Similarly, "My experience was fine, so clearly your bad experience needs to be invalidated" is a toxic attitude.

Your original comment is pretty toxic. What do you want to imply by your original anecdotal comment other than grandstanding? This is a research article, and you could suggest that the researchers look at more negative aspects of open source that could affect developers but to say basically open source is terrible is ridiculous

Re: Why We Engage in FLOSS: Answers from Core Developers

#19
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps, I should not be surprised the first response here is, "Well maybe that's your fault for not having a crystal ball which can predict the actions of strangers." That attitude is part of the problem. Similarly, "My experience was fine, so clearly your bad experience needs to be invalidated" is a toxic attitude.

Your original comment is pretty toxic. What do you want to imply by your original anecdotal comment other than grandstanding? This is a research article, and you could suggest that the researchers look at more negative aspects of open source that could affect developers but to say basically open source is terrible is ridiculous

How is relating my experiences adjacent to the subject of the article, as someone who has in fact released two rather large open source projects (one with a fair amount of ongoing traction) toxic?

Just because it documented experiences that were negative?

The responses so far:

- It's your fault for doing it (true, but unhelpful).

- Maybe you should care (I released the original work, I cared enough)

- Even talking about adjacent experiences is inappropriate and and you should stop. (yours)

Re: Why We Engage in FLOSS: Answers from Core Developers

#20

I've never understood it. I've only had horrific experiences with my open source efforts. From the simplest cases like being ignored on PRs and tickets to mockery in social circles for algorithmic mistakes to finding out my work was enabling bad people to finding out people were misrepresenting my employment status while using my work in violation of the license, I don't think I've ever once had a positive experience…

How are you experiences of other volunteer work?
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