Hug an OSS Developer or just don't be a dick
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Hug an OSS Developer or just don't be a dick
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Re: Hug an OSS Developer or just don't be a dick
#2I've contributed to a few small open-source projects myself in the past and can only remember polite, well-mannered people in the associated communities. However I think the key point is that those were very small projects, with equally small communities.
When you get to the Mozilla / Selenium level of popularity discussed in the post, it must be a near-certainty that you will also attract your fair share of uninformed and/or plain rude people posting bug reports and comments. In that sense, it can be viewed as a good thing: your project is a success, otherwise it wouldn't be attracting all the bad vibes!
Re: Hug an OSS Developer or just don't be a dick
#3If you find a problem with open source code and you can't fix it and provide a good patch, at least identify where in the code is at fault.
If you can't find the fault, provide a fully formed test case that shows the problem.
If you can't create a test case, be polite and extremely specific when reporting the bug.
If you can't be polite... well the bug is probably less of a problem than your attitude.
Re: Hug an OSS Developer or just don't be a dick
#4...or try not to get into the situation where your financial/employment status is in the hands of volunteers. (Don't use OS for important things that require diligent support)
Re: Hug an OSS Developer or just don't be a dick
#5...or try not to get into the situation where your financial/employment status is in the hands of volunteers. (Don't use OS for important things that require diligent support)
Or pay the developers for "diligent support". Many open source projects offer some kind of paid support or commercial license. A lot of people seem to expect fully fledged support for free, and that's pretty crazy.
If you want "free support" you either need to be able to fix it yourself or get on good terms with the developer. In any case, don't be a dick.
Re: Hug an OSS Developer or just don't be a dick
#6...or try not to get into the situation where your financial/employment status is in the hands of volunteers. (Don't use OS for important things that require diligent support)
Or pay the developers for "diligent support". Many open source projects offer some kind of paid support or commercial license. A lot of people seem to expect fully fledged support for free, and that's pretty crazy. If you want "free support" you either need to be able to fix it yourself or get on good terms with the developer. In any case, don't be a dick.
Well said. So if its mission-critical, expect to take support in-house or pay for it. Or don't use it.
Is there some clearinghouse of OSS support suppliers?
Re: Hug an OSS Developer or just don't be a dick
#7I spent a good many years managing and developing a popular open source project.
While most of our users were/are good individuals, there were certainly some nasty ones in the bunch. I remember being cursed at many a time simply for politely refusing to implement whatever random feature a user requested.
If a bug were to come up in the software, there were times where threats and/or demands were made that I fix the bug or modify something to the user's liking. (Never physical threats as far as I can recall, but still unwarranted aggression.) They absolutely refused to believe that I didn't directly "owe" them anything. It was a bizarre entitlement feeling some of the users had. It's not like I worked on the project for a living. I had a day job as well.
I finally started transitioning away from the project and handing it off to someone else when I started getting phone calls at my home. A user managed to track down my cell phone number and started calling me in the middle of the night (3am - 4am.) He wanted to talk to me about his "ideas" that I should implement in the code.
That's not to say all of our users were jerks. In fact, it was a very small minority. Out of the hundreds of thousands of users we had, only a handful were dicks. Unfortunately, some took it to creepy levels.
On the other hand, many warm e-mails were received and even on occasion cases of beer for our coding efforts. I still hold a lot of fond memories of that time. Hell, even the legal issues were a learning experience, though the majority of that occurred around the time I was bowing out.
I really don't even know what point I'm trying to make here. I just wanted to share a few brief stories.
`Tis a strange world.
Re: Hug an OSS Developer or just don't be a dick
#8I spent a good many years managing and developing a popular open source project. While most of our users were/are good individuals, there were certainly some nasty ones in the bunch. I remember being cursed at many a time simply for politely refusing to implement whatever random feature a user requested. If a bug were to come up in the software, there were times where threats and/or demands were made that I fix the b…
Idly curious: is there a reason you don't just mention the name of the project? (I'm assuming Pidgin.)
Re: Hug an OSS Developer or just don't be a dick
#9I spent a good many years managing and developing a popular open source project. While most of our users were/are good individuals, there were certainly some nasty ones in the bunch. I remember being cursed at many a time simply for politely refusing to implement whatever random feature a user requested. If a bug were to come up in the software, there were times where threats and/or demands were made that I fix the b…
Idly curious: is there a reason you don't just mention the name of the project? (I'm assuming Pidgin.)
I mentioned it initially but went back and removed it. I couldn't decide if the stating the project specifically was relevant or not. I often over analyze what I'm posting here for some reason.
It was Pidgin, but back when it was called gaim. The pidgin transition occurred while I was leaving. I stuck around long enough to participate in deciding on the new name / logo / branding and then handed everything over to Sean officially.
Re: Hug an OSS Developer or just don't be a dick
#10To me an open source project is 1% about the code and 99% about the community. Without a good community, you might as well not bother open sourcing the code.