Re: To the Armchair Directors

From: Gary W. Swearingen <underway_at_comcast.net>
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 21:20:22 -0800
"Poul-Henning Kamp" <phk_at_phk.freebsd.dk> writes:

> Gary,
>
> Nobody in FreeBSD has the right to annoy developers by whining at them.

I meant to say that developers should be tolerant of the whiny set of
many users; not that should be tolerant of the set of many whiny
users.  But the first tolerance requires being tolerant of occasional
comments on FreeBSD development that annoy many developers, such as:

  Somebody should make the boot loader grok USB and Ethernet so that
  users could replace RS-232 terminals with USB and Ethernet terminals
  for simular uses, like using boot loader commands.  Users on
  freebsd-questions_at_ and my local BSD forum agree.

I've always considered it a waste of my and your time to make such
suggestions here, but I sure don't think it deserves the poster a
flame for having suggested it.  It's easily ignored, and flaming
such comments cause more harm to FreeBSD than good, whether anyone
considers such suggestions to be pontificating or not.


One other thing (that I heard from another user): A developer often
doesn't know what contributions a seeming-non-developer has made to
FreeBSD when the judgement is made whether or not to flame a comment.
You might be suprised how little work, compared to yours, makes some
people think they deserve a chance to comment on FreeBSD developement
without being flamed.  Their expectations can cause even a flame with
a smiley to result in great offense and can greatly discourage further
contributions.  If it's important enough to risk all that, at least
put your rules in a tactfully-worded "official" explanation which you
can refer to instead of having developers vent their frustrations on
people who are just trying to help, in their own unhelpful manner.
Received on Mon Mar 15 2004 - 20:20:10 UTC

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