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FOQ – Frequently Obnoxious Questions When Doing an Open Source Project

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Re: FOQ – Frequently Obnoxious Questions When Doing an Open Source Project

#11

Post by gravypod »

tptacek wrote: post #9
gravypod wrote: post #5

This "FOQ" does not come off as anything but something written by someone on a very high horse. For a project owner to need to write a page about these common questions, why would you not instead implement these common requests? I've often done this in some of my projects, which could be considered a microcosm of this. I've never heard of this application, but if there is a module system, why not write a few modules…

For a project owner to need to write a page about these common questions, why would you not instead implement these common requests? The whole document is about answering each of those common questions individually.

If it gets to the point where someone says "can you implement X, Y, and Z for me, it would make my life much better" isn't it better to just implement it and make everyone happier rather than write a web page just telling them essentially to get out?

Re: FOQ – Frequently Obnoxious Questions When Doing an Open Source Project

#12

Post by tptacek »

gravypod wrote: post #11
tptacek wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a project owner to need to write a page about these common questions, why would you not instead implement these common requests? The whole document is about answering each of those common questions individually.

If it gets to the point where someone says "can you implement X, Y, and Z for me, it would make my life much better" isn't it better to just implement it and make everyone happier rather than write a web page just telling them essentially to get out?

See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11054501 and note that none of the reasoning on that page includes "so we can write this web page".

Re: FOQ – Frequently Obnoxious Questions When Doing an Open Source Project

#13

Post by throw12121 »

gravypod wrote: post #5

This "FOQ" does not come off as anything but something written by someone on a very high horse. For a project owner to need to write a page about these common questions, why would you not instead implement these common requests? I've often done this in some of my projects, which could be considered a microcosm of this. I've never heard of this application, but if there is a module system, why not write a few modules…

Q: Why won't you spend your free time implementing my favorite feature?

If you're not paying us, you need to convince us that your feature is so great, that it's worth giving up our free time to work on.

This is open source. Scratch thine own itch.

Re: FOQ – Frequently Obnoxious Questions When Doing an Open Source Project

#14

Post by gravypod »

throw12121 wrote: post #13
gravypod wrote: post #5

This "FOQ" does not come off as anything but something written by someone on a very high horse. For a project owner to need to write a page about these common questions, why would you not instead implement these common requests? I've often done this in some of my projects, which could be considered a microcosm of this. I've never heard of this application, but if there is a module system, why not write a few modules…

Q: Why won't you spend your free time implementing my favorite feature? If you're not paying us, you need to convince us that your feature is so great, that it's worth giving up our free time to work on. This is open source. Scratch thine own itch.

Not everyone knows how to program. If a programmer asks for a feature, tell a programmer to write it, if someone who is interested in programming help them write a feature, but if enough people officially request a feature it's better to just help the lot of them.

Re: FOQ – Frequently Obnoxious Questions When Doing an Open Source Project

#15

Post by laurent123456 »

I don't get who this page is for. Those who ask "obnoxious questions" usually don't read FAQs or FOQs so they'll keep asking them anyway.

However, I could see how this kind of document could deter people who actually want to contribute, since they might not want to deal with the condescending tone of the owners.

Re: FOQ – Frequently Obnoxious Questions When Doing an Open Source Project

#17

Post by xioxox »

gravypod wrote: post #10
notacoward wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why would you not instead implement these common requests? Because time is finite. Apparently you're one of the few developers that doesn't have 10x more feature requests than you have resources to work on them. Good for you. However, that's not the norm. > why not write a few modules for some other people? See above. It's a mistake to generalize from young and/or small projects to those that have become large and…

On every project that I have worked on, developer support for projects increased with the amount of users. I would understand if there was no one using this project and it was a one-person operation, but if you are getting so many requests that it is literally impossible to comply with the top 5% of them then you should have made friends with enough people in your community who would be suited for doing these tasks.…

I've haven't noticed any increase in developers with my main project, which is very user heavy. It's a multiplatform GUI application, something which attracts a lot of non programmers. If you write some sort of library, you're going to get a lot of development help. That's not the case for a GUI app lots of people can use.

Re: FOQ – Frequently Obnoxious Questions When Doing an Open Source Project

#19

Post by ben336 »

gravypod wrote: post #14
throw12121 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Q: Why won't you spend your free time implementing my favorite feature? If you're not paying us, you need to convince us that your feature is so great, that it's worth giving up our free time to work on. This is open source. Scratch thine own itch.

Not everyone knows how to program. If a programmer asks for a feature, tell a programmer to write it, if someone who is interested in programming help them write a feature, but if enough people officially request a feature it's better to just help the lot of them.

Thats equivalent to saying "if enough people have strong feelings about how you should spend your free time, you should listen to them". Would you really support that in any context that didn't involve "open source"?
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