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Even if the current contributions are slim, wouldn't the long term benefit of perhaps gaining a permanent contributor outweigh the current effort to educate mor

Even if the current contributions are slim, wouldn't the long term benefit of perhaps gaining a permanent contributor outweigh the current effort to educate more people?

richardwhiuk 10y ago
The underlying suggestion is that they see very low conversion from 'GSoC student' to 'active volunteer developer post GSoC'
- Beltiras 10y ago
  For a community to thrive it must respect their elders and teach their young. How do you survive in the face of inevitable death if you won't take in more young? Someone has to think past 2038.
  - Gracana 10y ago
    Maybe so, but it seems like GSoC is not the path to this goal.
    - Beltiras 10y ago
      Or they might have too short a horizon on measuring the goal. Someone might start contributing later. It's a numbers game. The stable contributor might be something of a unicorn but you have to try to find one.
bluGill 10y ago
Experience (across many open source projects) is that the majority of students are gone at the end of summer. The long term benefits you cite are great when they exist, but for a project they just don't happen. Most students seem to treat GSOC as a way of getting experience for the commercial world, with no intent to sticking with the project long term. There is nothing wrong with this, and it is a good thing that there are mentors willing to put in effort to help these students. However this is NOT good for the project itself.
Gracana 10y ago
The email says that's the reason they tried it for two years, but it didn't work out, so they're not trying again.
mrweasel 10y ago
I think it depends on how slim, the mentors have to take out time from their own projects, so you'd have to detract that from the gain. You'd also have to factor in maintenance on new code produced by GSoC students that don't stick around. Honestly I don't get why people are upset, the explanation from Bob seems completely reasonable. If the OpenBSD developers don't believe that they see sufficient result from their work, then nobody is forcing them to participate.
- Beltiras 10y ago
  It sounds sad and short sighted to me. Maybe they are turning away volunteers because interest is so high. That would be a rare Open Source project.

Even if the current contributions are slim, wouldn't the long term benefit of perhaps gaining a permanent contributor outweigh the current effort to educate more people?

richardwhiuk 10y ago

The underlying suggestion is that they see very low conversion from 'GSoC student' to 'active volunteer developer post GSoC'

Beltiras 10y ago
For a community to thrive it must respect their elders and teach their young. How do you survive in the face of inevitable death if you won't take in more young? Someone has to think past 2038.
- Gracana 10y ago
  Maybe so, but it seems like GSoC is not the path to this goal.
  - Beltiras 10y ago
    Or they might have too short a horizon on measuring the goal. Someone might start contributing later. It's a numbers game. The stable contributor might be something of a unicorn but you have to try to find one.

bluGill 10y ago

Experience (across many open source projects) is that the majority of students are gone at the end of summer. The long term benefits you cite are great when they exist, but for a project they just don't happen. Most students seem to treat GSOC as a way of getting experience for the commercial world, with no intent to sticking with the project long term. There is nothing wrong with this, and it is a good thing that there are mentors willing to put in effort to help these students. However this is NOT good for the project itself.

Gracana 10y ago

The email says that's the reason they tried it for two years, but it didn't work out, so they're not trying again.

mrweasel 10y ago

I think it depends on how slim, the mentors have to take out time from their own projects, so you'd have to detract that from the gain. You'd also have to factor in maintenance on new code produced by GSoC students that don't stick around. Honestly I don't get why people are upset, the explanation from Bob seems completely reasonable. If the OpenBSD developers don't believe that they see sufficient result from their work, then nobody is forcing them to participate.

Beltiras 10y ago
It sounds sad and short sighted to me. Maybe they are turning away volunteers because interest is so high. That would be a rare Open Source project.