Blog: Dear Open Source Project Leader: Quit Being A Jerk

[menotu]

Posted by Derick Bailey on December 14, 2012 - lostechies

I do my best to support the people that use my open source projects. I don’t always do things right, I don’t always respond in a timely manner. Sometimes I just have to walk away from an issue or request and let it die from lack of attention. But I do my best, and I take the time to provide meaningful answers whenever I can. I get a lot of “thank you!” notes from people because of this, and every now and then I get a comment like “best open source project leader, ever” or “you do so much more to help, than any other oss project leader i’ve dealt with.”

The first few times this happened, I was genuinely shocked. The next few times, I began to think “wow, I’m doing something great, here.” But then the last few times it happened, I started moving back in to “shocked”. I started wondering why people were reacting this way. Am I really doing something special? Am I going above & beyond? I don’t think I am… but maybe I am?

(No, this is not a humble-brag. I’m making a point, here…)

A short time after I started asking these questions, I saw something on twitter, something clicked in my mind and I became very sad as I realized why people are reacting this way.
The Open Source “Elite” Are Immature Jerks

What I saw on twitter was yet another comment from an open source “elite” – a person of high visibility with a project that is well known by tens or hundreds of thousands of people – making fun of someone else trying to contribute. Again. And again. And again. Over and over. And it makes me very very sad.

The comments tend to be the same, no matter who the perpetrator is… “Stupid pull request of the day”, “WAT”, “What is this, I don’t even…”, “LOL”, and other phrases and words that basically say “look how stupid this person is. can you believe they would send in a pull request like that? HAHAHAHA! they’re so dumb! don’t they know that [arcane reason for the way things are]?”

I can’t think of a better way to get people to stop contributing to open source projects. Seriously… there is nothing more demotivating and demoralizing than this kind of high-school-bully response. It needs to stop.

Full blog

[frazelle09]

+1

Have a great morning! 

[Wildman]

They used to be the majority of Linux users/Dev's...They used to make anyone whop asked or requested something from them feel real welcome......Not!
drove and kept many many many folks away from Linux for many years....They still exist, and are still just a obnoxious as then, just not as many around now, Thankfully.   

[horusfalcon]

Why are we here, in this place, using this distribution?  The answer is so simple, so obvious, that I'm surprised our distro isn't more popular.

The original motto of PCLinuxOS when I started using it in 2007 was "Radically Simple".  It was more than a motto - it was a philosophy of design and integration that made PCLinuxOS 2007 one of the most bulletproof operating systems I have ever had the pleasure to use.  It was clean, clear, steady as a rock, and faster than a speeding Shinkansen.  I used it for a very long time, and lurked at the PCLinuxOS fora, using them anonymously for quite a while before signing up.  I liked what I saw, and wanted to be a part of it.

Let me not write "War & Peace" here.  My point is this:  one of the primary reasons that PCLinuxOS fluorishes and grows the way it does today is that its people are behind its success.  We're not perfect, but we get along most of the time because we genuinely wish to help each other and contribute in some small way to the community we have come to view as ours.  That's at the core of an ethic we here in the Deep South of the United States call "Southern Hospitality".  I like to think that PCLinuxOS embodies this ethic quite nicely.

I'll stop there.  I'm sure I've made my point.

Later On,
D

[frazelle09]

We're not perfect, but we get along most of the time because we genuinely wish to help each other and contribute in some small way to the community we have come to view as ours.

This embodies several admirable human qualites such as self-sacrifice, cooperation, community-building, colaboration and humility.  Are these also not an expression of love?

Have a great evening! 

[Wildman]

We're not perfect, but we get along most of the time because we genuinely wish to help each other and contribute in some small way to the community we have come to view as ours.

This embodies several admirable human qualites such as self-sacrifice, cooperation, community-building, colaboration and humility.  Are these also not an expression of love?

Have a great evening! 

+92

[frazelle09]

Perhaps this one is more to the point...

A kindly tongue is the lodestone of the hearts of men. It is the bread of the spirit, it clotheth the words with meaning, it is the fountain of the light of wisdom and understanding.

   (Bahá'u'lláh, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 15)

Have a super day!