Open source projects work best when they have a benevolent dictator. You need someone who isn't afraid to say "no" to bad ideas, or else you'll end up with a total clusterfuck. It's just as important not to forget the "benevolent" part. I'll always remember Brad Fitzpatrick telling me "no" to one of my dumb suggestions for PubSubHubbub. He explained his reasoning and took the time to tell me what I needed to fix. He knew he was smarter than me, but he gave me the chance to figure that out on my own instead of pushing me away.
Dear Open Source Project Leader: Quit Being A Jerk
151–160 of 190 posts
Re: Dear Open Source Project Leader: Quit Being A Jerk
#152This isn't restricted to open source project leaders, or even open source developers. You'll find the same childish elitism in pretty much every field of human endeavor. Programmers certainly do it. Laughing at noobs and being mean to them is pretty much the sole purpose of IRC, unless I'm mistaken. Surfers do it. Climbers do it. I've even seen rocket scientists do it. The interesting thing is watching which members…
That's certainly not the sole purpose of IRC. Perhaps you're frequenting the wrong channels. For example, ##c on freenode is notably caustic.
Same with #debian.
Re: Dear Open Source Project Leader: Quit Being A Jerk
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had the same experience in the dance world. I was privileged enough to be able to train with national and world champions. At the lower end of that scale, people were incredibly full of themselves. Work with somebody who's recognized world wide? She's the nicest person ever. (Even though I clearly wasn't as good as she'd have liked me to be ;) It's inspiring to work with people who don't have anything to prove to y…
It's the same in the martial arts world, too. The humblest, nicest, friendliest instructor I've ever had - in MMA-style kickboxing, generally a pretty macho area - was the one with multiple world championship belts.
I was prepared to post this exact comment.
It's frankly amazing how broadly consistent this behavior is, martial arts, weightlifting, video games, network engineering - across the board.
Re: Dear Open Source Project Leader: Quit Being A Jerk
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
This. When jasonkester says: Generally it ranges between "reasonably good" and "better than most people I know" [...] [b]ut there it stops. I don't believe it's necessarily true. It has more to do with how they think they are perceived. Look at Kobe Bryant, one of the best basketball players to ever live. I've seen videos where someone will challenge him, "I'll get 2 before you get 10". Kobe takes that as disrespect.…
> Try upsetting a doctor by calling him/her "mister"/"miss" repeatedly. I know a ton of CS PhDs, they never like to be called doctor or introduce themselves as Dr. So and So, are you talking about MDs?
"Dr." is a title; "doctor" is noun which only ever refers to an MD.
Re: Dear Open Source Project Leader: Quit Being A Jerk
#155Having used Dericks (the OP) Marionette package and interacted a few times with him, I can attest he practices what he preaches.
Re: Dear Open Source Project Leader: Quit Being A Jerk
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Try upsetting a doctor by calling him/her "mister"/"miss" repeatedly. I know a ton of CS PhDs, they never like to be called doctor or introduce themselves as Dr. So and So, are you talking about MDs?
"Dr." is a title; "doctor" is noun which only ever refers to an MD.
Or a D.O.! But in general, physicians prefer the noun "physician" to "doctor".
Re: Dear Open Source Project Leader: Quit Being A Jerk
#157this blog post has a major omission of any specifics whatsoever. I've never seen this kind of behavior, and I'm having a great urge to say something like, "oh well because PHP/Ruby/etc". But that is all prejudicial. Won't we be given some specifics so that we don't have to guess what famous OSS author actually typed "HAHAHA" at a pull request ?
It's hard to believe that people "have never seen this behaviour" have spent much time watching the OSS community. Ulrich Dreper, well known OSS contributor and former steward of glibc, was famous for flaming the ever-living shit out of anyone who dared submit a patch that he in any way did not care for. To give but one example, http://www.sourceware.org/ml/libc-alpha/2000-08/msg00053.htm...
Surely we can find a better example of this supposedly widespread behavior than this. Reading that whole thread, it's clear that this Christopher guy hasn't even considered issues that are quite important to Ulrich and his collaborators. Then when his failure to consider is pointed out, instead of taking the lesson to heart he doubles down with unconvincing, unrelated arguments. That is "crap", and that's what Ulrich called it.
Re: Dear Open Source Project Leader: Quit Being A Jerk
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Yes it can hurt if your contribution is coldly cast aside, and yes it would be much better if they warmly took you in and taught you in their ways, but if the OSS project leaders don't keep up the constant stream of contributions, improving the project all the time the project will die and all work will have been in vain. Perhaps I'm being naive, but doesn't fostering relationships with contributors promote more co…
It's an investment. The first few patches from a new person will likely require so much hand-holding from the maintainers that it would have taken them less time to just write the patches themselves. As that new contributor learns the ropes, though, that cost goes does. Eventually they hit break-even where they are adding more value to the project than they cost. But that requires the person to stick around long enou…
I have 1 patch in the git kernel. I barely knew c when I did it but I did tons of research on what to call and how. Junio (maintainer) took my barely workable patch and told me what to fix. Let me do it, then pulled it in. Amazing experience in a very scary environment, eg non-minimal chance Linus tears into you.
Re: Dear Open Source Project Leader: Quit Being A Jerk
#159Lots of sports analogies on here. I'll toss in mine. I've made a habit of trying new things and have gotten over the "you look stupid when you start" part. Skiing, Snowboarding, knitting, sewing, coaching, aussie rules. Everyone's a newb at some point. I have found that I compare myself to other skiiers / boarders a lot. But that is mainly a safety thing so I know if I should follow them down other parts of the mountain. So competitive but for a reason. I think I get more pissy about etiquette and safety, but generally from people who look like they should know better. 16 year old coming into the lift line at high speed, I see you. I'm a large large man, you're gonna get hurt if you hit me and I played college ball, I'm gonna make sure I don't get hit. Soooo... anyway. Unless you're trying to get ranked in real life, you're really just competing against yourself. You're the one who will decide if you have the time to put into whatever to be good enough to compete at a low national level. There are exceptions, but in sports you can use your brain and experience to make up for physical deficiencies. In Cerebral events you can use persistence and experience. And I've tailed off so Fin
Re: Dear Open Source Project Leader: Quit Being A Jerk
#160This isn't restricted to open source project leaders, or even open source developers. You'll find the same childish elitism in pretty much every field of human endeavor. Programmers certainly do it. Laughing at noobs and being mean to them is pretty much the sole purpose of IRC, unless I'm mistaken. Surfers do it. Climbers do it. I've even seen rocket scientists do it. The interesting thing is watching which members…
I think it has to do with the level of mastery. At some point, when you become really good at something (almost anything), you realise that a lot of your own knowledge now comes from explaining the basics to people who don't know anything. By forcing yourself to redo the basics, you get fresh insight on a level that someone new to whatever activity simply can't appreciate because they don't have X years experience wi…
I wonder if it's the fact that you're willing to explain that makes you better, that gets you over the "7a" hump, or if it's that after you grow out of the "7a" hump you become more willing to explain? Because in my experience, there are definitely certain individuals who, no matter what level of expertise they are, are happy to field questions, and if they don't know the answer, they thrive in seeking it out with you. It would seem that those are the kind of people most likely to keep learning until they become one of the top in their area.
Maybe there's a good reason most professors are required to teach classes with students far below their level of expertise.