Corporate pressure

[Mike A. Harris]

On Tue, 3 Feb 2004, Michel Alexandre Salim wrote:

>> > If you *can* do it just *do* it.
>> > 
>> > Don't just *talk* about doing it...
>> > 
>> > Frankly, I don't think you can.
>> 
>> I can, however, notice and discard crude attempts to manipulate me.
>> Congratulations, you just pushed this task lower on my priority list.
>
>Please do not let scathing remarks by one poster from discouraging you.
>Having more support by commercial multimedia vendor is a good thingTM,
>and personal politics should have nothing to do with it.

I disagree.  Eric has done quite a large number of things for the 
OSS community over the years, and he very much owes NOBODY 
*ANYTHING*.  Like the majority of developers and OSS advocates 
out there, he no doubt has a TODO/priority list that is 10 times 
longer than can be humanly accomplished in a lifetime.  In such 
cases, one must prioritize them based on various factors, and one 
of those factors that a volunteer will consider is "what's in it 
for me?".

For some, it's "personal satisfaction", for others it might be 
"scratch an itch", or "fame", or some other motivation.  For a 
complete list, buy Eric's book and read it.  One of the things 
notably missing from the list of "motivating factors for 
volunteers to do stuff for free" is "rude people making obnoxious 
demands".

That particular item is on the "ways to get someone to never 
listen to you again, and purposefully do the opposite of what 
you want" list.

Well, it's not in the book, but it's what I practice anyway.  
Perhaps Eric will add it to future revisions of The Cathedral &
the Bazaar.  ;o)




-- 
Mike A. Harris     ftp://people.redhat.com/mharris
OS Systems Engineer - XFree86 maintainer - Red Hat