[Sussex] Thoughts On Contrubuting to the Community

[Nic James Ferrier]

Steve Dobbo Dobson <steve at dobson.org> writes:

> The people I'm trying to get thinking are those that ask questions but never
> post answers.  They take without giving, as it takes time for people like you
> or me to answer their queries, so they do cost the community.  That is against
> the spirit of the GPL if not the letter.  My hope is to encourage them to 
> reply to this thread, to get them started, because the more people that 
> contribute to the community the richer we all are.  A point I believe you
> agree with.

I don't agree with that.

I think questioners do add value because we've answered that question
and probably 50 people will look at it and never have to ask it.

When I run programming projects I'm extreemly happy to have people ask
questions on mailing lists and not do anything else. FAQs are built
out of the questions people ask.


> I may have influence, I may have respect.  But if I do I only have them
> because others have given them to me, I certainly have no power.  I can
> lead but everyone else is free not to follow.

Of course you have power. Not in a formal sense maybe but you have
power because of who you are.


> I'm sorry that you took offense at my approach of encouragement by setting
> some homework, but there are those that need that kind of encouragement
> to do something.  There are people somewhere that will be offended that
> you and I are communicating in English.  There are those that object to 
> the fact that I'm male, white, or have blue eyes.

But those are unreasonable objections. I didn't like your tone because
I found it hectoring and I hate that.

But richie, at least, hates my tone. So live and learn, eh?


>> I guess I just don't like that sort of evangelism.
>
> How many times must I say sorry?  But different approaches work for
> different people.  This is one of my attempts.  I'll judge how successful
> it is at the next moot.

I wasn't asking you to say "sorry".

-- 
Nic Ferrier
http://www.tapsellferrier.co.uk