[CentOS] kernels and irc

[Ray Van Dolson]

On Thu, Jun 05, 2008 at 10:35:18AM -0600, James Bunnell wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 2008-06-05 at 09:19 -0700, Ray Van Dolson wrote:
> 
>     >     This is open source etiquette.  It differs from business etiquette
>     >     where you are more than welcoem to berate and yell and holler about
>     >     things because you're paying someone a lot of money.
>     >
>     >
>     > the etiquette is rudeness to promote open source? is this what you are saying?
>     >
> 
>     No, the etiquette is that you need to approach developer and volunteers
>     as just that -- people who are doing this in their spare time.  Do not
>     be demanding, go the extra mile yourself ahead of time to seek answers
>     on your own, and give these folks the benefit of the doubt if they
>     don't act like support staff at RH; it isn't their job.
> 
> 
> i have a little familiarity with open source, perhaps more than noted, and i
> what i am seeing here is centos saying that since we're not paid, we dont care.
> i think there are many projects that would not want this image. sounds like
> failure to me. hence,  i am not so sure this is anything to be proud of.
> anyway, time to move on.
> 

The woe-is-me attitude has to go for starters.  When asking any
question of anyone involved with an OSS project, keep in mind:

  - These are people who are not being compensated in any way shape or
    form
  - They are likely spending time working directly on things, and any
    time deveoted to "users" is an extra
  - They are likely innundated with similar questions all the time
  - They are more likely to be interested in assisting those who assist
    themselves
  - They are more likely to be interested in helping those who bend
    over backwards to be polite and appreciative of the work they are
    getting for free.

Frame your questions and reactions with these things in mind, develop a
bit thicker skin.  Run everything said by a developer type through the
nerd "tact filter" too:

  http://www.mit.edu/~jcb/tact.html

This applies for any project, not just CentOS!

Ok, I'm done beating this dead horse. :)