
How to Use Open Source and Shut the Fuck Up at the Same Time - josep2
http://hueniverse.com/2016/01/26/how-to-use-open-source-and-shut-the-fuck-up-at-the-same-time/
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n0mad01
Brilliant.

I can absolutely identify with his point, i get such subliminal aggressive
messages/questions too, these people tend to need more and more.

They will email you with questions, when you answer and help them they won't
even thank you.

They won't donate.

They won't star your project.

They won't help spread the word.

They just use the shit out of your software and rant when a tiny part doesn't
work as they expect.

So i've also decided (just about a week ago) to quit answering, i simply close
these issues. Fuck them.

~~~
oxplot
Regarding the ranting, it's a common thing. Let's talk apps. I've seen people
giving one star because the app took 5 steps to initialize instead of one.
I've seen people rate movies the lowest because "the last 5 minutes of it
sucked". It's unfortunate at best but so far they seem to be a very tiny
minority.

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supergeek133
Can someone compare the level of hate he's describing here with what the
average person has to deal with in the enterprise? Maybe it's not bullying,
but it's still a high level of stress. Especially on production support
rotation.

~~~
greenyoda
But at least in the enterprise, you're actually being paid to deal with
customers. The author of the article is _not_ being paid - he's generously
offering his software to the world for free, and ungrateful people are
bullying him.

Also, in companies that are bigger than startups, developers don't have to
deal directly with customers that often. We have customer support departments
who are trained to talk nicely to demanding customers.

~~~
supergeek133
I get the difference in the situation from a macro perspective. But consider
being a lead developer, or the person with the batphone that week during an
outage.

Executives breathing down your neck demanding answers and things "just work".

I get being paid, and I get assholes in general. I'm just saying from a pure
mentality standpoint, it's not 100% opposite.

~~~
greenyoda
_" I'm just saying from a pure mentality standpoint, it's not 100% opposite."_

A customer who has paid a lot of money for a software license and a support
contract has the right to demand that you fix it if it doesn't work. They're
not being a bully; they're just demanding what they've paid for. They have a
right to threaten to take their business elsewhere, and to escalate the issue
to your boss if you aren't being helpful. As a developer I need to understand
that this customer is paying my salary, and their business may be losing money
because of a bug that's my fault. I should have some empathy for their
distress.

However, someone who has paid nothing for open source software has no right to
the developer's time. They're trying to get something they're not entitled to
by bullying a developer. The developer should have no problem telling the user
to fuck off.

So it seems to me that in these two situations, both the user and the
developer are in very different mental stances.

------
draw_down
Well, can't say I disagree. There is no way I could be a maintainer of a
reasonably popular project like Hapi. People are just too terrible. Especially
software people.

