Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 21:13:37 +0100 From: Brian Somers <brian@freebsd-services.com> To: Jordan Hubbard <jkh@freebsd.org> Cc: brian@freebsd-services.com, paul@freebsd-services.com, will@physics.purdue.edu, imp@freebsd.org, cvs-committers@freebsd.org, cvs-all@freebsd.org Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/sys/pccard pccard.c pcic.c pcic_pci.c pcicvar.h Message-ID: <200109132013.f8DKDbd95974@hak.lan.Awfulhak.org> In-Reply-To: Message from Jordan Hubbard <jkh@freebsd.org> of "Thu, 13 Sep 2001 12:46:41 PDT." <20010913124641B.jkh@freebsd.org>
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> > I think it's a bit unfair to challenge people like this. People
> > contribute to FreeBSD in more ways than just coding.... commit counts
> > aren't proportional to project participation.
>
> Not to pick on you Brian, but everytime someone has the temerity to
> suggest that coding contributions DO matter, especially when we're so
> demonstrably and critically short of such resources, somebody else
> pops up and ignites this same tired smoke screen of denial and it
> sucks.
You're misrepresenting the facts. I didn't suggest that coding
contributions don't matter. I suggested that they aren't the only
thing that matter.
> Sure, there are other ways in which the project can be improved other
> than coding - documentation can be written and new software can be
> added to the ports collection or updated in place. But each of those
> examples have one very important thing in common - they represent a
> significant and visible investment in the project, the kind of
> investment which is important not just for its own sake but for the
> message it sends to others that things ARE happening and progress is
> being made.
Absolutely, they're easy to measure. My point is that attempting to
silence people on the basis that their contributions aren't measurable
is unfair.
For example, I have no idea what most of the people that post to the
mailing lists do from day to day. I therefore wouldn't presume to be
in a position to tell them to contribute to the project in a more
visible way...
"Hey, Bob Bruce, why are you complaining that 1.9-release has
corrupt boot blocks in the ISO image ? What have you ever done
for FreeBSD ? Fix the damn things yourself !"
> Let's also not forget that these sorts of "put up or shut up"
> criticisms aren't generally made in a vacuum, with somebody just
> deciding to pop his cork out of the blue and suggest that maybe people
> should start writing some code or docs or whatever. They're made in
> reaction to some self-appointed policeman waving his arms around and
> telling others how to do their work under the mistaken impression that
> this is a "contribution" which somehow measures up to that of those
> actually DOING the work. I'm sorry, but no matter how you try to spin
> reality and alter the terms of our social contract in such a way that
> the project gestapo are now considered equivalent to the hard-core
> developers, it just doesn't make it so.
So you're saying that people who don't contribute to the project in
a clearly measurable way have no say on the mailing lists ?
I'm sure I'm getting the wrong end of the stick here.
> - Jordan
--
Brian <brian@freebsd-services.com> <brian@Awfulhak.org>
http://www.freebsd-services.com/ <brian@[uk.]FreeBSD.org>
Don't _EVER_ lose your sense of humour ! <brian@[uk.]OpenBSD.org>
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