Experiances when contributing to open source projects

[Nuluvius]

Hey guys,

 

I'm feeling a little bit affected/uneasy/shaken about a recent bad experience when contributing to a particular open source project. It was my first time doing so and to be honest, without going into the details, the whole experiencing was rather nasty. As a result it has left me feeling somewhat jaded right now. Whilst I have met hostile developers in the past this experience went way above and beyond those.

 

I think I'm trying to look for some kind of closure on it. So I'm just wondering if anyone else has had any similar experiences they want to talk about? Surly this cannot be the de facto standard in the open source community?

[LePawel]

-nom-

What happened exactly?

[madknight3]

Assholes are in every facet of life, especially when the internet is involved and you aren't face to face with someone. While I've never tried to work on an open source project, a guy at my university was a major contributor to one of the apache projects and regularly tried to teach the students the benefit of contributing to open source. He was a super nice guy.

 

I expect you just got unlucky. So if you really love the project you contributed to, either stick with the assholes and get good enough to where they accept you contributions, or move on to another project.

 

Also don't forget that nice people can also be really critical of your work and come off as overly harsh. It's not that they have anything against you, it's just their way of helping you improve.

[thegamezbeplayed]

Are you a good developer?

[Nuluvius]

What happened exactly?

 

I don't particularly want/feel it's appropriate to go into the specific details i.e eluding to the specific project or individuals. What I will say is that it escalated to an unpleasant personal level. However it wasn't just me, there had been quite a lot of the user base that had been treated with dismissive, rude and often very overt aggressive behaviour as well.

 

 

Assholes are in every facet of life, especially when the internet is involved and you aren't face to face with someone. While I've never tried to work on an open source project, a guy at my university was a major contributor to one of the apache projects and regularly tried to teach the students the benefit of contributing to open source. He was a super nice guy.

 

I expect you just got unlucky. So if you really love the project you contributed to, either stick with the assholes and get good enough to where they accept you contributions, or move on to another project.

 

Also don't forget that nice people can also be really critical of your work and come off as overly harsh. It's not that they have anything against you, it's just their way of helping you improve.

 

Thank you

 

Elaborating more on what I've mentioned above then; honestly it didn't even get to the code review stage. I should have noticed something was off by the attitude prevalent around the project's forums. Then even more so when I experienced the first passive aggressive exchanges. However much in line with what you have already said, I was attempting to persevere at the time. Sadly it ended up becoming very unpleasant personally in the end.

 

Being used to working in line with the Agile methodology; I am quite communicative and open about ideas and skill exchanges i.e. working with them helping them learn some new concepts and technologies.

 

I think some of what went wrong was possibly due to this being misinterpretation by certain younger individuals as being an attempt at subversion of position. The escalating hostility and negative actions were certainly indicative of that kind of situation.

 

Generally when something like this occurs, even when I get the first hint of something not being quite right. I will attempt to seek resolution before letting the situation develop. I very much dislike conflict in any form. In this case I even reached out a few times seeking clarification and understanding... however sadly the overtures went ignored.

 

 

Are you a good developer?

 

I think that's a difficult question for any developer to answer. I also think it would be incredibly conceited for one to simply say 'yes I am'. Certainly one may tend be wary of someone who may have an immediate answer to this question. Ultimately I think we are all learning all of the time and as such there is always potential for one to become better/more than they currently are.

 

To try to answer the question then; I think I'm good enough to have the privileges of being employed in a large multi national corporation and to find that I also have a consistent demand for freelancing and contractual work in my off hours. Yet I relish criticism and other opportunities to learn so that I may strive to be 'more' than what I currently am.

[LePawel]

-nom-

Well I guess they just didn't like your style, and didn't have the communication skills needed to tell you that the human way. Just ignore them, you're on the internet after all.

[Nuluvius]

Well I guess they just didn't like your style, and didn't have the communication skills needed to tell you that the human way. Just ignore them, you're on the internet after all.

 

I know, you're completely right and I'm usually not this sensitive... just that I'd made an investment and was committed

[rockking1379]

Personally I think I am to dumb to contribute to these open source projects. So congrats on just being able to do that. As for the unpleasant exchanges, eh move on and find a better project that you can contribute your skills to

[thegamezbeplayed]

 

 

I think that's a difficult question for any developer to answer. I also think it would be incredibly conceited for one to simply say 'yes I am'. Certainly one may tend be wary of someone who may have an immediate answer to this question. Ultimately I think we are all learning all of the time and as such there is always potential for one to become better/more than they currently are.

 

To try to answer the question then; I think I'm good enough to have the privileges of being employed in a large multi national corporation and to find that I also have a consistent demand for freelancing and contractual work in my off hours. Yet I relish criticism and other opportunities to learn so that I may strive to be 'more' than what I currently am.

 

 

so no?

 

i dont understand the point of this thread

[Nuluvius]

so no?

i dont understand the point of this thread

The point was to discuss what others might have found when dealing with open source porjects.

[thegamezbeplayed]

The point was to discuss what others might have found when dealing with open source porjects.

you didnt even share tho, you just said oh it was bad and im sad but i cant say what happened

[Nuluvius]

you didnt even share tho, you just said oh it was bad and im sad but i cant say what happened

I'm failing to see whats causing you confusion.

[thegamezbeplayed]

I'm failing to see whats causing you confusion.

 

what is confusing is your asking for closure but fail to explain anything

[Nuluvius]

what is confusing is your asking for closure but fail to explain anything

 

Oh I see now, then I think you might have misinterpreted slightly. I'm not asking for closure, I'm asking about what kind of experiences others have had in order to find closure. i.e. asking for closure is far too subjective and vague.

 

Regarding the details I think what has been said is adequate. As I have stated, it's not going to be appropriate to draw highlight to the specific project/details thereof here. It would only escalate the situation further plus one then comes of as being malicious.

[bluescreeny]

Only times I tend to "contribute" to open source projects is whenever I'm reading through their code and see that they are using either outdated or resource consuming methods.

 

My expirience is that as long as you point out why your method is better and why they should kill themselves for using their method, in a nice way, they tend to respond quite nicely back to you too.

 

Only negative expiriences I've had reporting anything is that sometimes people tend to try and be proffecional by saying things like, (and this is a direct quote) "The potential vulnerability you reported has been patched." I especially hate it when people use the word potential refering to something as urgent as a percistant xss vulnerability where the user was able to embed other sites and add code to their front page. I mean like what the fuck.

[wolfsinner]

so no?

 

i dont understand the point of this thread

 

Are you a good developer? If you think this thread has no point, how can you possibly think that question does? Why are you being so hostile?

 

On-topic, I've never contributed to a big open-source project. While I like the concept of open-source, the people who admire and practice it are many times a pain in the butt (Stallman is a prime example).

It's unfortunate that you had to deal with such an unpleasant experience, but that is life. There are a-holes everywhere, and there's nothing we can do about it. Some people can't appreciate other people's effort and dedication - or simply don't have enough sensibility to realize it is there.

This kind of behaviour is mostly prejudicial to them, so don't think too much about it. You're better than them, in that regard at least. Additionally, from personal experience, overly hostile developers are often times incapable developers.

 

If a group doesn't appreciate your effort, take your talents elsewhere. Their loss.

[SPascareli]

Are you a good developer? If you think this thread has no point, how can you possibly think that question does? Why are you being so hostile?

 

On-topic, I've never contributed to a big open-source project. While I like the concept of open-source, the people who admire and practice it are many times a pain in the butt (Stallman is a prime example).

It's unfortunate that you had to deal with such an unpleasant experience, but that is life. There are a-holes everywhere, and there's nothing we can do about it. Some people can't appreciate other people's effort and dedication - or simply don't have enough sensibility to realize it is there.

This kind of behaviour is mostly prejudicial to them, so don't think too much about it. You're better than them, in that regard at least. Additionally, from personal experience, overly hostile developers are often times incapable developers.

 

If a group doesn't appreciate your effort, take your talents elsewhere. Their loss.

 

Can you elaborate on why you think that about Stallman?

[wolfsinner]

Can you elaborate on why you think that about Stallman?

He's too radical. I don't like that.

[SPascareli]

He's too radical. I don't like that.

 

I agree that this was kind of my first impression over him and his ideas, but the more I think about software and digital media in a whole I find myself thinking towards "it's just data and code, you should be absolutely free to copy, modify and distribute". I don't know for sure where I stand on this but just make sense to me.

[wolfsinner]

I agree that this was kind of my first impression over him and his ideas, but the more I think about software and digital media in a whole I find myself thinking towards "it's just data and code, you should be absolutely free to copy, modify and distribute". I don't know for sure where I stand on this but just make sense to me.

 

Well, everyone's entitled to their opinion. I appreciate open-source, but could never demand or expect software to be open-source. Why should it be? I understand the advantages of proprietary code for companies. Software is a business, so it makes sense.

Bottom line for me is: trying to demonize those who oppose, or do not practice, open-source/free software is not cool in my book.

[SPascareli]

Well, everyone's entitled to their opinion. I appreciate open-source, but could never demand or expect software to be open-source. Why should it be? I understand the advantages of proprietary code for companies. Software is a business, so it makes sense.

Bottom line for me is: trying to demonize those who oppose, or do not practice, open-source/free software is not cool in my book.

 

I do agree with you that demonize people for not following your beliefs is wrong, but as in any science, everything is built on top of was built by someone else before you, so I can see why proprietary code can be harmful to computer science.