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Open Source Maintainers Owe You Nothing (mikemcquaid.com)

submitted 7 months ago by lemmyreader@lemmy.ml to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

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Post from 2018 but still valid. https://mastodon.social/@mikemcquaid/112211808720492947

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[-] xilliah@beehaw.org 36 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Slightly unrelated but it kind of reminds me of a guest room I used to have.

I had this tiny but amazing little room in the center of an expensive city. Walking distance from station. Large balcony. Large windows with sun. Blackout curtains. Silent. Pretty wooden desk. Ample storage space. Mirror. Shiny clean. Lots of features, basically!

Couchsurfers were always so deeply thankful and I've never had any real issues. It was fun and rewarding.

Airbnbers? Oh my god there were some entitled guests. And it was just eur 25 a night! There's even emotional labor involved because you have to take it with a smile or you might end up receiving a bad review and drop out of the search.

I can't for a second imagine a surfer acting that way. Just like this article says it's like they assume there's this capitalist alienated relationship going on, whereas actually it's simply a gift.

[-] poVoq@slrpnk.net 12 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Same with hostels by the way. Back in the day when I did most of my (basically tramp style) backpacking there were all these cheap nice hostels where you basically couldn't complain and also would not because you knew these were not run with a commercial mindset.

These days not so much, but I guess I am becoming an old cynic 😑

[-] xilliah@beehaw.org 4 points 7 months ago

That's better than being a young cynic

[-] electricprism@lemmy.ml 4 points 7 months ago

IIUC 'in the heart of every cynic lies a disappointed idealist', in any case the relation between the two is worth keeping an eye out for

[-] metallic_z3r0@infosec.pub 3 points 7 months ago

Reminds me of a tweet I saw once:

Unlike you jaded pessimists I still have the ability to feel optimistic about something even after a lifetime of disappointment. And you know why? Because I’m stupid.

[-] Sagar@sopuli.xyz 27 points 7 months ago

Every open source software has a maintainer. In case of it being maintained by 'community', it is maintained by a person who pretends all are included.

[-] rollingflower@lemmy.kde.social 11 points 7 months ago

This. There nearly never is a community, at least in practice. Bigger projects have different roles, but its mostly "if you dont know how to code, you are likely not helping"

[-] forgotmylastusername@lemmy.ml 20 points 7 months ago

Maybe instead of Torvalds taking lessons on how to be less of an asshole, he should be teaching developers how to be more like him.

[-] dessalines@lemmy.ml 16 points 7 months ago

He's doing the right thing and softening his responses to be more welcoming to new contributors, but it's still totally understandable when any open source dev loses patience. We have thousands of requests coming at us from all angles and no one has infinite patience.

[-] electricprism@lemmy.ml 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I think that falls under "Burnout Management"

There are thousands of you and me who work around the clock to prevent the internet from blowing up all the time.

A lot of people can't handel the constant stress, terrible hours, it takes a toll on each of us.

Softening responses, good for sure, but the demands put on the pioneers of tech, much respect -- we wouldn't be where we are without them in spite of their very real human limitations. Much props for their daily self sacrifice.

[-] Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works 17 points 7 months ago

I always admire the people taking a lot of their free time to do something beneficial for the community.

Be it as a maintainer, a small basketball coach. a village politician.

I’ve always thought about one day giving back everything I’ve received like that, but I haven’t done yet. Right now I have excuses with a difficult parental situation, but there has been many moments where I could and I just haven’t.

So congratulations and thanks to the ones doing it 👍