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For many open source contributors and maintainers, it's always not an option to "be on the bottom of things". Patches (for some projects) flow via e-mail. So
by kashyapc 6y ago
For many open source contributors and maintainers, it's always not an option to "be on the bottom of things".
Patches (for some projects) flow via e-mail.
So there's some decent amount of "being on top of things". Not at the rate of "I need to feverishly refresh my Inbox every 2 minutes", but "I ought process these patches/designs/bug e-mails at some sane rate that doesn't drive me bonkers". (Which can be done effectively with venerable tools like Mutt, et al; refer to the recent thread on it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24173676 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24173676 – "Mutt email client 25 years old")
This is just saying the boring truth that there's different kind of e-mail—the draining, unproductive long threads that don't go anywhere and the "get the work done"-style patches/designs/bug work e-mails.
- bonzini 6y agoOh how I wish I sometimes had the choice to be on the bottom of things. :-) Though I sometimes do get pretty close to disconnecting myself if I have some difficult or urgent task, and on vacation of course. If the world around us cannot survive with us leaving for a week or two, there's a problem on both sides!
- kashyapc 6y agoI hear you. :-) I never cease to be amazed at how seasoned maintainers like you handle the sheer volume of public email, while continuing to stay effective over the years, healthy disconnection, and setting an example to emulate on how to conduct oneself in public. (On the problem you refer to, some of us here will recognise that well-meaning FOSS developer who starts getting anxious to take a two-week vacation with the family because "there's no one else who is able to process the core pull requests" for their project.)