Like I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I started to get involved in GNU. One of the things I noticed (I won’t mention names or teams) is how people (the ones responsible) talk to the ones trying to get involved.
Remember something:
- No one is obligated to do anything for any free software project! However, people work on these projects because they want to. They want to contribute because they believe they can be helpful.
- The project needs everyone’s help! It doesn’t matter if it’s something as ’simple’ as translations. It’s important to the project. If you don’t want it, don’t ask for it!
- You will push them away! No one wants to send an application for a position (say translator) and receive something along the lines of: You think you know, but you don’t know shit!
- You’re not GOD! Dude, you’re not even close! Do you have a high position on a project. Well, that’s great. I’m sure you worked hard to be put in charge, but remember one thing, you don’t have to be an asshole. Actually, you have to give an example! And telling someone to ‘fuck off’ is not a good example.
You will win allot more by being nice. If you don’t think your a people person, go to some basement1 and do some code. But having these types of people being the first line of communication for something as important as GNU, is NOT, in my opinion, a good idea!
There are exceptions. I say this to prevent someone mentioning it on the comments. I know patience has it’s limits, and I’ve been tested lately for a submission to UbuntuWeblogs.org. You don’t have to be a saint, hell, I even told the guy to stop emailing me otherwise I would block his email, but try and be helpful.
The world is full of pricks already, let’s try and keep the free software community assholes-free and an example of how geeks are nice (good luck with that)
- don’t read basement as offensive [↩]
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One Comment
From my experience, there seems to be a huge disconnect between regular people and people like Stallman. To Stallman, software is not just software–it’s a matter of life and death. People like Stallman don’t want to realize that they’re dealing with tools and that there should be a place for all kinds of tools.
That’s simply my observation.
Hell, sometimes it feels like the BSD license is much more reasonable for someone who just likes to code without having to be a part time lawyer and a part time town crier.
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