Re:Is it wrong to demand features in open-source projects?
by zepto on Friday February 05, 2021 @11:15AM
(#26037887)
As has been pointed out elsewhere, ‘demand’ has a bunch of ambiguity around it.
Generally it seems useful to a project owner to receive feature requests. They can be a source of ideas, and a signal about what users are doing with the code.
As long as the owners feel free to do what they want with the requests, including ignore them, it’s not obvious what the harm is.
However, ‘demand’ to me generally implies either rudeness, or a threat.
Rudeness can be a bit subjective, but generally it’s a bad strategy for having an ongoing conversation with someone. Obsequiousness can be equally bad. Being respectful and attuned is better.
Threats on the other hand, do seem wrong to me. Threats include things like ‘if you don’t include this, I’ll write posts impugning you’ etc.
Generally it seems useful to a project owner to receive feature requests. They can be a source of ideas, and a signal about what users are doing with the code.
As long as the owners feel free to do what they want with the requests, including ignore them, it’s not obvious what the harm is.
However, ‘demand’ to me generally implies either rudeness, or a threat.
Rudeness can be a bit subjective, but generally it’s a bad strategy for having an ongoing conversation with someone. Obsequiousness can be equally bad. Being respectful and attuned is better.
Threats on the other hand, do seem wrong to me. Threats include things like ‘if you don’t include this, I’ll write posts impugning you’ etc.