In the Meritocracy of LinuxmceLand

[davegravy]

In the Meritocracy of LinuxmceLand:

1) Your ideas are not considered as contributions until you have proven yourself in LinuxmceLand.

2) You will not be listened to, and your ideas will not be considered until you contribute to and prove yourself in LinuxmceLand.

3) You will not be motivated to contribute until you feel like your ideas have been considered (you don't want the risk of investing your precious spare time in a project that you're not sure will take your contributions seriously).

Solve this conundrum, LinuxmceLand, and you will have solved your contributor drought.

[tschak909]

Thank you for adding to the drama. Really appreciate it.

I'd like to set the record straight, immediately:

1. We value initiative, over supposition and "waiting for someone else to do it."

2. See 1.

3. We value any and all contributions of code, documentation, and support. The issue isn't that contributions are being turned down, it's that we have a lack of contributions to enrich our pool of knowledge, code, and support. This fear of not having contributions valued, is unfounded.

What we need, are people who actually just get in to prove their points.

Far too often, we have people who come into this community, wanting to be "served" their features, or wanting to take managerial positions, "You should do this, and this, and this, and this." without talking to the people actually contributing code, and trying to fix bugs, to get a clear indication of what's actually happen.

-Thom

[l3mce]

ugh.

I am truly truly... truly sorry

"And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death"
-God

Dream not.
Do.
Simple.

Nobody is gonna take your idea and run.

Nobody is gonna feel bad because the thing you want isn't implemented, except you.

[golgoj4]

In the Meritocracy of LinuxmceLand:

1) Your ideas are not considered as contributions until you have proven yourself in LinuxmceLand.

2) You will not be listened to, and your ideas will not be considered until you contribute to and prove yourself in LinuxmceLand.

3) You will not be motivated to contribute until you feel like your ideas have been considered (you don't want the risk of investing your precious spare time in a project that you're not sure will take your contributions seriously).

Solve this conundrum, LinuxmceLand, and you will have solved your contributor drought.

1. I have lots of ideas. I dont really expect other people to sit around thinking up ways to implement them. If anything I try to research enough before i make a proposal to others. Works in life and open source communities. People like to know you are not having a case of mudd-butt of the mouth and can maybe take an idea a little further than talk. Proving one's self...like implementing said idea yourself, even on a basic level perhaps?

2. Maybe this is perception on my part, but isn't it a wee bit mad to expect your idea to be taken up by someone else as their pet project, as if it existed in a vacuum with nothing else going on? Also, maybe im just a little odd in how I deal with people, but I kinda judge by actions more than words. Maybe its because im from the land of sketchy people, but I dont get how not immediately analyzing every suggestion for how it can be integrated into linuxMCE right away leads to an overall devaluation of ideas.

3. Im motivated to try and contribute because it would help move things forward overall. You know, for the benefit of other people and whatnot, seeing as how so many people have already made that good faith investment of time and effort. Pay it forward if you will. I dont really need others to validate my ideas outside of 'will this cause problems' because I find ideas stand on their merits.

I personally think the drought has nothing to do with this so much as a social problem in general. Seems everyone wants an 'app for that' but nobody wants to know how it works. Or how to make their own. Or how to make it better. They just want it to 'be'. /pontification


*edited for tact*
in other news, i submitted my 1st diff today. hooyah!
and when did this place become livejournal with everyone committing their feelings to forum posts? *ducks*
-golgoj4

[hari]

is there a full moon out today?

* hari needs more popcorn

br Hari

[golgoj4]

is there a full moon out today?

* hari needs more popcorn

br Hari

No, just that time of the month I guess

-golgoj4

[davegravy]

I personally think the drought has nothing to do with this so much as a social problem in general. Seems everyone wants an 'app for that' but nobody wants to know how it works. Or how to make their own. Or how to make it better. They just want it to 'be'. /pontification

I agree whole-heartedly that it is a social problem - of the users as much as the devs. I would guess that 30% of people are strongly self-motivated types and have no trouble contributing to this project. But there is still a large percentage of the resource pool that remains untapped.

If I had the skillset and the right personality, I would do it myself, but I think this place could really use a warm friendly person with some technical knowledge, dedicated to discussing people's proposed ideas with them, and giving them encouragement to implement their ideas if they are in fact good ones. I know the devs are helpful with the technical side in the IRC channel, but there appears to be a serious problem with motivating newcomers that aren't strongly self-motivated types. They may be pansies in your mind, but they ARE a resource, and the best interest of the project in terms of productivity is to capitalize on them.

It would be nice (in a sense) if nobody had feelings and would just work for the project based purely on the merit of the project and the donation of time from other contributors. But unfortunetely, as you all know, this is not human nature.

[golgoj4]

I personally think the drought has nothing to do with this so much as a social problem in general. Seems everyone wants an 'app for that' but nobody wants to know how it works. Or how to make their own. Or how to make it better. They just want it to 'be'. /pontification

I agree whole-heartedly that it is a social problem - of the users as much as the devs. I would guess that 30% of people are strongly self-motivated types and have no trouble contributing to this project. But there is still a large percentage of the resource pool that remains untapped.

If I had the skillset and the right personality, I would do it myself, but I think this place could really use a warm friendly person with some technical knowledge, dedicated to discussing people's proposed ideas with them, and giving them encouragement to implement their ideas if they are in fact good ones. I know the devs are helpful with the technical side in the IRC channel, but there appears to be a serious problem with motivating newcomers that aren't strongly self-motivated types. They may be pansies in your mind, but they ARE a resource, and the best interest of the project in terms of productivity is to capitalize on them.

It would be nice (in a sense) if nobody had feelings and would just work for the project based purely on the merit of the project and the donation of time from other contributors. But unfortunetely, as you all know, this is not human nature.

The question is, do we want people that need a cookie in order to contribute vs the one who do contribute based on the merits of the project?

I pick the self motivated types, even if they are in short supply because in my experience, that leads to a more efficient method of operating. But if someone wanted to take it upon themselves to become this warm fuzzy person that fill the role you describe, nothing is preventing them. Heck, i think many would appreciate it.

Its not so much about being 'pansies' as having a mindset of 'ok someone else do it'. I fail to see how its a failing of the dev's seeing as how they are pretty much the %30 that dont need said cookie and contribute based on the merits. Maybe you could expand on that?

-golgoj4