Re: Advantages/Disadvantages of Open Source Software (Was Re: Package grub-xen-host breaks PV domains with 11.5 point release)

[Maude Summerside]

On 2022-09-14 21:45, Michael Stone wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 14, 2022 at 11:16:00PM +0100, Steve McIntyre wrote:
>> I'll be brutally honest: being accused of "possibly malicious"
>> unwilligness is *not* a great way to convince overstretched volunteers
>> to spend their time on issues.
> 
> Especially when it's an ongoing pattern of discourse.
> 

I think there's many barrier that discourage people from wanting to
contribute to many project. I feel some developer use the community as
unpaid beta tester but don't go further into accepting contribution.

For sure, having managed some project, I have to say that it's hard to
accept contribution that will add new functions to as software when
these come from a unknown contributor. Not because of being scared of
malicious intent (unless the person is really paranoid but that's
another story). Simply because adding a new function means having to
support it's ongoing development and there's no guarantee that the
contributor will do so. Same goes on for code contributed that needs
refactoring, that are badly documented, etc. But all this need some good
social behavior from the project owner/manager.

There's people who just think "I've done something free if people are
happy they use it, if they ain't they continue their journey". Those
don't accept criticism. But that's all part of the human behavior.

-- 
Polyna-Maude R.-Summerside
-Be smart, Be wise, Support opensource development