Exactly. This and nothing else. I really don't understand why this is so hard to understand.
Of course it doesn't, because that's not what is explained. Read again maybe. If anything, the author asks for respect.
Your comment completely contradicts everything written in the article. It doesn't make sense to you because you don't want it to make sense to you.
Step 1. The author doesn't use GPL.
Step 2. The author clearly intended wiringPi to have a limited audience. He doesn't want it to become widely used. He intentionally limited support to a handful of hardware devices. It was meant to be used by experienced C programmers.
Step 3 isn't about the author being cheated. Fame or money were never mentioned. The author is overwhelmed with work, whether it is caused by the open source project, a new job or caring for his family doesn't matter.
However there is a special situation happening here that generally only applies to open software projects. The vast majority of the bug reports involve problems that have already been solved in newer versions. This means that even if the author had an infinite amount of time, all of it would be wasted on already solved problems. There is no reason to work on the project anymore since the rate of progress has stalled. The project has entered a zombie stage and then one day the maintainer announces that the project will be shutdown.
I'd probably even add your mentality, ubiquitous on HN, to his list. People come out of the woodwork to shit on others. It seems even moreso when it's just a hobby project.
You're basically taking one last snipe at him while he exits the theater. For what? Is this what you thought the world needed more of?
Most of it included my real name and email address in the executable and DLLs details tab, as well as the source code. I was the top of the little niche, and more than happy to help other developers out there. I'd help users as best as I could, but my tools were mostly geared at developers (though, users never stopped amazing me at clever unintended ways to use things)
The emails I got from this could be broken down into two categories: Actual questions about the tools, including bug reports or problems integrating it into some other project. That was about 5% of the emails I saw. The other 95% was "Program <x> stopped working! I can't find any contact anywhere expect in this one DLL, I demand you help me fix it!"
It was super disheartening, since my attempt to explain my role as someone that provided a tool or library to whoever wrote their application was responded with either "Your name is in this application, I don't care what your role is, you need to help me fix it!", or "If you didn't want to provide support, why is your email here?"
And that's, basically, how I ended up using random combinations of words on sites like this one. Maybe people with a thicker skin can deal with this crap, but I can't anymore.
The people that contacted me were, in the majority, some of the most entitled assholes.
I quit reading the email address associated w/ my open source project, and one user tracked down my (then) work email to demand support!
Whilst many are great users, who use as intended, just reading his post in full outlines just some of the instances and issues that have caused what was a passion and a hobby project to become a source of abuse and mental anguish. Nobody should have to endure that, more so when they did nothing wrong.
Then, when you start getting 10,000+ e-mails shitting on you for not also doing XYZ for free, because how dare you not, I'll take your opinion with a more open mind.
The author made it fairly clear that this was not just a money situation.
>I never intended for wiringPi to be statically linked either – and thanks to the incompetence of many people who have done just this, I’ve had over 10,000 emails from people who upgraded their Pi and found that code stopped working because they were reliant on a system (typically some java/javascript/node or home automation or UPS thing) which had statically linked an older version
My point is, the author intended the project to be used for X. It was used for Y. Author doesn't want to support Y. Author gets bombarded with e-mails complaining they don't support Y. This isn't "suddenly creating drama like this" or "also somehow expecting to make money off this" as you asserted.
Another pertinent part of the article you seem to be skipping is:
>Add to that the people who have “bludgeoned” wiringPi to work on other fruit Pi platforms, but left my name as the contact email …
You claiming the author is just creating drama solely because of money is a gross misreading of the situation.
groundlogic 52 minutes ago | parent | flag | favorite | on: WiringPi – deprecated
I'm a bit annoyed about people running popular open source projects suddenly creating drama like this
Followed with
but also somehow expecting to make money off this
To which I replied
The author made it fairly clear that this was not just a money situation.
To which you replied
What's your point?
And I said that my point was that this isn't about money? Or am I just going crazy?
The point, and the reason I've downvoted you, is that Gordon clearly spelled out that his frustration is not about money. Gordon's clearly articulated frustration is in having to deal with demanding and abusive users. By pursuing the argument that Gordon's angry about making an insufficient amount of money you're perpetuating a strawman argument.
No one deserved to be verbally abuse from total strangers for things beyond his control.
Yes, the author could simply ignore the requests. But we ought to aim higher than 'silently accept the harassment and do nothing,' for the betterment of everyone.
It seems like you only think the author has a right to be frustrated if the license is used in an illegal way, not if they license is followed but the users are abusive.
Apologies.
Who would of thought things you said previously about a subject might be brought up later in the conversation?
Step 2. This piece of software becomes widely used, primarily since it's open source licensed
Step 3. (Modern variation) Person A feels cheated for not getting rich and creates some kind of drama.
This doesn't make any sense at all, to me.