
The thing killing open-source is the people - shruubi
http://shruubi.com/2015/03/07/the-thing-killing-open-source-is-the-people/
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forgottenpass
Why do so many articles about the Kernel culture assert Linux has a
contributor problem? Whenever Greg K-H does his contributor report, it looks
like the largest collaborative software project ever shows no signs of slowing
down. Are there reports or complaints from the Kernel maintainers that I've
overlooked? Are the main barriers to entry no longer the technical skillset,
intimidating problem domain and desire to work on kernels? I honestly don't
know. If anything I think that the kernels contributor problem is that it's
too attractive compared to chopping wood next door in the userland libraries
and core processes.

Note: For this post I'm not trying to say anything one way or another about
the complaints towards the social environment of the Kernel community, I find
this a particularly poor point to use when arguing that message.

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CHY872
I don't think the Linux kernel is a good example here. The vast majority of
people who commit to it are paid to do so by their employers, and if you're
just getting started then committing to the kernel is probably a bad idea
anyway.

There are a tonne of smaller projects who will gratefully accept submissions
and not be such a pain. It's easy to view Linux as the centre of the open
source community, but in practice it's not.

A much easier way to get involved in open source is just to do so as part of
your normal life - when you're using a library and find a bug, submit a fix -
if there's a feature you've added and found useful, submit it as a PR. It
might not be well received in every case, but it will in many.

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59nadir
Nothing is killing open source. Open source is not dying.

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kstenerud
Be careful about taking one open source project and then using it to paint all
open source projects. Toxicity exists everywhere. It's just that in open
source projects it's a lot more, well, open.

~~~
maxerickson
Is there somewhere a clear explanation of social toxicity?

I get that people use it to label things they don't like, it just seems like
it is used as a catch all.

For instance, is bluntness that occasionally comes across as rudeness toxic?
Is the use of expletives toxic? Etc.

I think something like excessive, pointless rudeness probably fits under toxic
as a category, but it also more useful to just say that such and such is rude.

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ericclemmons
The best open-source projects are the smaller ones, IMO, which are usually the
efforts of a few developers who welcome outside help.

I've contributed to large-ish projects like Symfony2 with high standards, but
the community was still encouraging.

Point being, I think the overall community and age of the project are the best
indicators for determining how hostile contributing would be.

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fit2rule
This isn't unique to the Open Source movement - basically, all human mass
movements eat themselves with hostility, aggression and downright ..
cannibalism, of the metaphorical kind .. sooner or later.

This is why leadership is so important, because without a leader, the human
mob maintains a state of semi-cannibalism, feeding on itself. With a leader,
they either stop doing that and get on with the project, or .. they eat their
leader, and for a little period of time while doing that, forget about their
own self-cannibalism long enough to actually get big things done.

In many open source projects, things go awry because the leader is trying to
engage in aggressive cannibalization of 'others', and so the goals and
purposes of the group are not propelled forward.

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stox
One size does not fit all. LKML has evolved to what it is. If everybody played
nice nice, we'd be discussing the merits of the new 1.20 kernel about now. It
is not a warm inviting place for the uninitiated.

That being said, managing your new project like it was the LKML will probably
be a kiss of death.

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cmsj
Sensible projects have a community code of conduct, and are prepared to
enforce it. We're not all infantile and rude :)

(edit: but to be clear, yes, toxic communities do exist and are a terrible
blight on the wider universe of open source)

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thescribe
How many articles like this do we have to have before we collectively learn to
ignore $X is killing open source?

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jordanpg
Like the rest of the things in the world, as programming knowledge and
competency continues to become democratized and ubiquitous, these tendencies
will change.

The incredibly competent men who run the show in authoritarian ways that
appeal only to men just like themselves will slowly give way to communities
built on negotiation, respect, and compromise -- humans will be humans.

Those who mutter the word _feminism_ only in derisive tones will complain
loudly as their world mutates, even as their own standards of normality and
fairness change.

This world of computers has been the domain of such men for a long time, for a
lot of reasons, but the days of this sort of thing are numbered. Computers are
too important.

