When anyone spends their resources making something and then gives it away for free they should be greeted firstly with gratitude. They should be greeted secondly with gratitude. They should be greeted lastly with gratitude.
Too much #FOSS#OpenSource community rage and contributor burnout stems from a strange forgetfulness that no one has to contribute anything this way. It's always a wonder. Let's chill out and be a little more kind and a lot more grateful.
@ryangorley I’ve been trying to consciously say “thank you” to the people behind the things I use more, but still don’t do it as much as is warranted.
People: send a friendly email to that project maintainer. Tell a designer when you love their work. Acknowledge and thank the developer who spends countless hours figuring out hard problems to make your computer work a bit better. Tell that person who gave a talk you listened to that they’re smart, respected, and valued.
@ryangorley I feel like this problem stems from the proliferation of "free" products everywhere, from companies such as Google. For those products, you complain, you get results.
To most people, FOSS and open source are not really any different to the commercialised "free" products, as at the end of the day they're not paying anything, so they have the same expectations for both.
Well said! Maybe, minus specificity and accuracy of bug reports, because it already turns away so much people from appreciating a communication part of #OpenSource. Let me paraphrase a bit. 😉 ↙
Be polite and provide resource. Just don't slander things and, especially, people on social media.
@ryangorley Yeah. I've taken a long vacation because I just couldn't stand it anymore -- the people telling me they were really angry, pissed, ticked off or whatever because the free and open source application I maintain didn't do exactly what they needed, when they needed it, for free. "Oh, if your website had a review button, I'd give you zero stars! Because!"
@halla Wow. With how many people use Krita, I can only imagine. For what it is worth, I love Krita. Thanks for giving me that gift. I get to use it on a limited basis for my work, but when I do it is always a delight. It brings me the joy I had when I could just draw for fun as a kid. Thank you!
@ryangorley to spice thing up (as your core point is absolutely correct) – what about being grateful towards people spending their resources and giving them away behind walled gardens?
I find it hard to only be grateful when projects exclude me simply by not having a $megacorp-account. Often I'd like to join and give away my free time but can't.
That feeling does not fit well with pure gratitude unfortunately. What then?
I often get backlash for merely pointing this out.
@mray Yeah, I can see how that would be frustrating. Similarly people can spend a lot of time writing code only to have it rejected by a project maintainer. Sometimes that's not handled graciously either.
@ryangorley too many people show up to GitHub issues and act like disgruntled customers who demand satisfaction! Never mind they're not paying for anything and complaining about something they got for free.
"Why isn't X done yet?" Because none of the volunteers who are working on this project for free in their spare time have done the work yet. If you want X done so badly, perhaps do the work?
@ryangorley Agree 110% To toot (see what I did there) my own horn, I volunteered to expand the US market footprint for LibreOffice. It's amazingly difficult to get people to accept that something great can be free. Try it, you'll like it.
If you're a writer, LibreOffice will free you to think, create and write knowing your material is on your computer, not some company's computer where they can steal, borrow or otherwise make unauthorized use of it.
@ryangorley Generosity and appreciation are downright alien concepts in a world dominated by capitalism. Folks are painfully new at this, even the ones who are actively working to make the mental shift.
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