The people who demand the most attention are the last to make significant contributions
Open source projects should run office hours
181–190 of 279 posts
Re: Open source projects should run office hours
#182I've been thinking about doing office hours recently and this is just the motivation I needed to set it up! So thank you OP. Paranoid me is a little nervous about putting up a scheduling link publicly, but here goes: I work on Typesense [1], which is an open source alternative to Algolia and an easier to use alternative to ElasticSearch. If you want to talk search and/or Typesense - DMs and Office Hours open: https:/…
Did all your slots get taken, or didn’t you open any up in March? I need to find some place/way to use this. It looks interesting.
I only had 2 weeks opened up, just opened up to 4 weeks in advance. Looking forward to chatting!
Re: Open source projects should run office hours
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
Should doesn't mean must, the title is ok with me. See also :) https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2119
I can't imagine a more HN thing than someone referencing a technical specification to define the word 'should'.
It was an open goal, how could I not? :)
Re: Open source projects should run office hours
#184Since about half of this thread is (reasonably) taking offense at the implication from the headline that this is yet another demand for free labor from open source maintainers, I'd like to emphasize this sentence: "I’d like to encourage more open source project maintainers to consider doing something similar" It's a matter of fact that many people (myself included) form opinions based on the headline without reading…
I re-titled it "Open source projects: consider running office hours" - if a bunch of different people all misinterpret something the same way that implies poor communication on my part.
I think the problem here is that a lot of people (myself included) will understand the term "office hours" as being the typical time window that people work in the office - i.e. 8am to 5pm.
This might be exacerbated with non-native english speakers which you'll see a lot around here.
The new title you suggested doesn't fix anything (at least for me it doesn't). Maybe consider using more commonly known terms to refer to the fact that your opening up you calendar to video calls with anyone that shows up?
Re: Open source projects should run office hours
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
The title is kinda unclear for someone non-English/US, for me office hours only means the actual hours when things are worked on (rather than any kind of availability time). So skimming the title it quickly I read it as "Open source projects should run on office hours" since my mind filled that in, kinda implied that someone in another part of the world should adjust their life hours to contribute to OSS. (Yes after…
The difference in usage is not localized English: it's cultural student/academic vs. employed. To a student with no professional experience, "office hours" are posted times when a professor is available to further mentor and guide a student. "office hours" are designated times outside of the scheduled class times and professors are generally required to provide them so others can benefit. To a professional and others…
To clarify the distinction is both academic AND language/culture. The concept of professorial office hours, and calling it "office hours" is not universal to all of academia, as people there speak different languages, and use then different words for things. Even if they might also use English, it doesn't mean they would call it that.
Re: Open source projects should run office hours
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
I re-titled it "Open source projects: consider running office hours" - if a bunch of different people all misinterpret something the same way that implies poor communication on my part.
I think the problem here is that a lot of people (myself included) will understand the term "office hours" as being the typical time window that people work in the office - i.e. 8am to 5pm. This might be exacerbated with non-native english speakers which you'll see a lot around here. The new title you suggested doesn't fix anything (at least for me it doesn't). Maybe consider using more commonly known terms to refer…
I considered that point of confusion too, but I decided I'm OK with people who are unfamiliar with the term "office hours" needing to click through and read the article. I picked "consider running office hours" because hopefully the word "running" there is slightly less likely to imply "consider only working 9-5pm".
I've added a note about the better German term "Sprechstunde" to both the article and my Calendly description: https://calendly.com/swillison/datasette-office-hours
Re: Open source projects should run office hours
#187Re: Open source projects should run office hours
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
I went to University in Australia and I don’t recall this term being in use. (Could be my faulty memory, though. It was a long time ago!) I’m still a little puzzled by exactly what is meant when people and orgs offer an “office hours” concept. I’d love a clear but concise definition that’s not simply “like office hours in university”.
I went to university in the UK 20 years ago. A few of our lecturers had "office hours". It was a new phrase, and invariably they were younger and had worked in US universities. We could drop in between 3 and 5 one day a week to ask questions. We thought them snooty. The other faculty staff had an open door policy. Now I'm their age, I appreciate how sticking to office hours helped these researchers to be productive.…
In my experience, US professors generally were open door as well but it was about catching them being in their office. They could be lecturing, faculty meeting, lunch, etc, etc, etc.
Office Hours is a way of saying I will DEFINITELY be in my office at my desk during this block of time.
Re: Open source projects should run office hours
#189I maintain a few small open source projects around publishing math on the web. I have a Freenode IRC channel and Matrix room bridged together where anyone is welcome to join anytime they need help. When I am relatively free, I also post a live web meeting URL to the channel where anyone can drop in or drop out anytime. So the Matrix/IRC channel along with occasional web meetings have been my version of office hours s…
I think the difference is in office hours you are guaranteeing to give people your full attention for those particular hours.
My comment was incomplete earlier and I edited it to update it later but you had already posted your comment before my edit, so posting this comment to clarify that I do occasionally indeed provide my full attention. I sometimes post a web meeting link to the Matrix/IRC channel. Anyone is welcome to drop in to the web meeting or drop out at any time. However, I have not tried the approach of offering one-on-one meeting slots via calendar booking and relying on audio/video during the meetings and that is something I am eager to try out now.
Re: Open source projects should run office hours
#190I think all companies should run office hours, not just individual developers. Many companies I worked for were missing feedback from their user base.