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Pay them. Don't -ever- expect anyone to contribute for free. When they do, treat them special instead of taking them for granted. That seems like common sens

Pay them. Don't -ever- expect anyone to contribute for free. When they do, treat them special instead of taking them for granted. That seems like common sense, but that's what I see all the time when it comes to programming projects, open source or not.

Charuru 16y ago
Sounds unfair, developers don't get paid, why do designers do.
- us 16y ago
  Because developers greatly benefit from participating in open source projects, designers usually don't. That said, developers also make more money than designers do and in a tech centric world, there are more needs for devs than designers. That's why.
  - nir 16y ago
    For most OSS devs, the benefit is having a more interesting portfolio, especially skills they don't get to use in their day job. Wouldn't this work the same way for designers?
- sp332 16y ago
  Actually, most kernel hackers (and I'll extrapolate wildly and say most open source programmers!) are paid to hack. PDF, relevant bits are in Tables 6, 9, 10, and 12. http://www.linuxfoundation.org/sites/main/files/publications/whowriteslinux.pdf http://www.linuxfoundation.org/sites/main/files/publications...
  - Charuru 16y ago
    If you're talking about os products that are supported by a company, there are a great deal of paid designers, eg mozilla, webkit, android, etc. Just in this context of getting people to 'contribute', we're explicitly referring to projects where the developers do not get paid.
- jasonkester 16y ago
  Not unfair at all. The vast majority of developers get paid for their time. It's only in Open Source that you see people volunteering their time with no hope of monetary reward. Even within that tiny minority, most of them are doing it for some form of compensation, even if it's just to get their name attached to something and build a reputation. If you're developing software for somebody else, they're not paying you, and you're not getting any benefit whatsoever, that's entirely your fault. It's certainly not unfair though.
perlgeek 16y ago
> Don't -ever- expect anyone to contribute for free. When they do, treat them special instead of taking them for granted. Right, but apply the same measure to developers too. We often get into the habit of taking some contributor's work for granted, be we shouldn't. Every patch should be treated with the same respect and gratitude. If it's somebody's seven-hundredth patch, you don't have to say "thank you" for every patch, but you should still keep that humble attitude.
- wccrawford 16y ago
  While I don't think you should thank for them every patch directly, I think there should be praise for their work occasionally. WINE's release emails always specified who did what, and that's not quite a 'thank you' but it's definitely more acknowledgement than I sometimes see. It doesn't even have to be the project leader or other developers doing the praising. A proper bug reporting system will give the users a chance to give that praise as well, thought the leader/developers should also be thankful for the contributions. It's not easy, and I'm not trying to say it is, but it needs more attention.

Charuru 16y ago

Sounds unfair, developers don't get paid, why do designers do.

us 16y ago
Because developers greatly benefit from participating in open source projects, designers usually don't. That said, developers also make more money than designers do and in a tech centric world, there are more needs for devs than designers. That's why.
- nir 16y ago
  For most OSS devs, the benefit is having a more interesting portfolio, especially skills they don't get to use in their day job. Wouldn't this work the same way for designers?
sp332 16y ago
Actually, most kernel hackers (and I'll extrapolate wildly and say most open source programmers!) are paid to hack. PDF, relevant bits are in Tables 6, 9, 10, and 12. http://www.linuxfoundation.org/sites/main/files/publications/whowriteslinux.pdf http://www.linuxfoundation.org/sites/main/files/publications...
- Charuru 16y ago
  If you're talking about os products that are supported by a company, there are a great deal of paid designers, eg mozilla, webkit, android, etc. Just in this context of getting people to 'contribute', we're explicitly referring to projects where the developers do not get paid.
jasonkester 16y ago
Not unfair at all. The vast majority of developers get paid for their time. It's only in Open Source that you see people volunteering their time with no hope of monetary reward. Even within that tiny minority, most of them are doing it for some form of compensation, even if it's just to get their name attached to something and build a reputation. If you're developing software for somebody else, they're not paying you, and you're not getting any benefit whatsoever, that's entirely your fault. It's certainly not unfair though.

perlgeek 16y ago

> Don't -ever- expect anyone to contribute for free. When they do, treat them special instead of taking them for granted. Right, but apply the same measure to developers too. We often get into the habit of taking some contributor's work for granted, be we shouldn't. Every patch should be treated with the same respect and gratitude. If it's somebody's seven-hundredth patch, you don't have to say "thank you" for every patch, but you should still keep that humble attitude.

wccrawford 16y ago
While I don't think you should thank for them every patch directly, I think there should be praise for their work occasionally. WINE's release emails always specified who did what, and that's not quite a 'thank you' but it's definitely more acknowledgement than I sometimes see. It doesn't even have to be the project leader or other developers doing the praising. A proper bug reporting system will give the users a chance to give that praise as well, thought the leader/developers should also be thankful for the contributions. It's not easy, and I'm not trying to say it is, but it needs more attention.