Re:A Sad Day for Rust
by hinkley on Friday January 17, 2020 @02:53PM
(#22078496)
> Open source participants are volunteers and owe you nothing.
And a lot of the internet has this wrong, including you.
Let me start by saying that Open Source is not a zero-sum game. I can make a library like your library and it doesn't have to be an adversarial relationship. I have users, you have a few less users.
But there are costs to having more. There is still only so much space in the ecosystem for so many actors. The more logging libraries we have the harder they are to find, the more drama there is over picking one...
The best analogy I have is a party. If I throw a party this weekend, and your birthday is next month, then I'm not hurting you. If I throw it the weekend of your birthday, knowing it's your birthday, I'm kinda being a dick. That's not cool, and you have every right to be upset.
Okay, but what does any of this have to do with Open Source projects, hinkley? I'm within my rights to throw a party. But my guests are within their rights to be upset if I throw a shitty party. They showed up. They could have been doing something else. But I insisted on taking up space and now I'm being ungracious about it. It's my party and I can treat people how I want is technically the truth, just like "I can do Open Source and ignore the concerns of my users" is technically the truth.
What I'm saying is that the people who show up don't have to like it. They're entitled to complain to people about it, especially if I don't apologize and say I'll do better next time, or get help.
It's my party, I can cry if I want to, but people are gonna talk.
[edit to add]
I think the problem is that we have a bunch of people who throw themselves into software at a young age because of or at the expense of social awkwardness, and we insist on treating things and other people as if they are machines instead of people who are also just trying to do the best they can. I'm fully aware that this observation cuts against my argument as well as supporting it, but we can't go on coddling people and organizations for ignoring the very real social aspects of our work. For being poor hosts.
And it's really hard, believe me I know. But people want to see that you're at least trying, or they will paint you the villain.
And a lot of the internet has this wrong, including you.
Let me start by saying that Open Source is not a zero-sum game. I can make a library like your library and it doesn't have to be an adversarial relationship. I have users, you have a few less users.
But there are costs to having more. There is still only so much space in the ecosystem for so many actors. The more logging libraries we have the harder they are to find, the more drama there is over picking one...
The best analogy I have is a party. If I throw a party this weekend, and your birthday is next month, then I'm not hurting you. If I throw it the weekend of your birthday, knowing it's your birthday, I'm kinda being a dick. That's not cool, and you have every right to be upset.
Okay, but what does any of this have to do with Open Source projects, hinkley? I'm within my rights to throw a party. But my guests are within their rights to be upset if I throw a shitty party. They showed up. They could have been doing something else. But I insisted on taking up space and now I'm being ungracious about it. It's my party and I can treat people how I want is technically the truth, just like "I can do Open Source and ignore the concerns of my users" is technically the truth.
What I'm saying is that the people who show up don't have to like it. They're entitled to complain to people about it, especially if I don't apologize and say I'll do better next time, or get help.
It's my party, I can cry if I want to, but people are gonna talk.
[edit to add]
I think the problem is that we have a bunch of people who throw themselves into software at a young age because of or at the expense of social awkwardness, and we insist on treating things and other people as if they are machines instead of people who are also just trying to do the best they can. I'm fully aware that this observation cuts against my argument as well as supporting it, but we can't go on coddling people and organizations for ignoring the very real social aspects of our work. For being poor hosts.
And it's really hard, believe me I know. But people want to see that you're at least trying, or they will paint you the villain.