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Suppose you go to clean up your local park and a monk walks up to you and hands you a book. They then ask you for a small donation. If this kept happening, woul

Suppose you go to clean up your local park and a monk walks up to you and hands you a book. They then ask you for a small donation. If this kept happening, would it discourage you from cleaning up your park?

imtringued 6y ago
If the monk constantly talks about how the park isn't clean enough [0] then yes. It certainly would. [0] Your software is missing feature X = your park isn't clean enough
- afarrell 6y ago
  Even if the monk wasn't doing that, I'd be annoyed.
Igelau 6y ago
The next week, the cleaner returned. The monk offered him the book again, whereupon the cleaner held out his trash bag, that he might toss it in. At this moment, the monk was enlightened.
- cutemonster 6y ago
  And the cleaner collected many such books, from various monks, in his trash bag, until eventually he had enough books to start a reasonably large fire, burning the park down, his cat enjoying the heat from the fire
Ensorceled 6y ago
I'm trying to figure out HOW this is an analogy for the comment you are replying to and can't. Can you explain?
- afarrell 6y ago
  The person going to clean the park is the maintainer of some Open source software, offered for the public good. The monk handing over the book is the person who has done the work to write a pull request and gift it to the maintainer. The request for a donation is the cultural expectation of reciprocity. A maintainer now feels pressure to accept the work of reviewing the PR. Yes, they can say no, but it feels bad and can motivate someone to stop maintaining open source software.
  - Ensorceled 6y ago
    That makes no sense, the analogy is wrong on all counts. An open source project I initiate is not a "public good". I'm sharing it; I still own the copyright. The monk handing over the book in the park has done no work on the park, they are a user NOT a contributor. In fact, probably a bunch of the trash I'm picking up are those pamphlets. I'm an atheist so the pamphlet is equivalent, at best, to a spam pull request. > The request for a donation is the cultural expectation of reciprocity. This is a completely different expectation that the open source expectation. I, personally, feel no guilt at all for telling people proselytizing to go away as I've done nothing to give them the expectation that their proselytizing would be welcome and most people proselytizing expect to be rejected constantly. Contributing back to open source is expected and usually desirable so the expectation that the contribution will be accepted. Also, the monk is ASKING FOR A CONTRIBUTION not giving one.

imtringued 6y ago

If the monk constantly talks about how the park isn't clean enough [0] then yes. It certainly would. [0] Your software is missing feature X = your park isn't clean enough

afarrell 6y ago
Even if the monk wasn't doing that, I'd be annoyed.

Igelau 6y ago

The next week, the cleaner returned. The monk offered him the book again, whereupon the cleaner held out his trash bag, that he might toss it in. At this moment, the monk was enlightened.

cutemonster 6y ago
And the cleaner collected many such books, from various monks, in his trash bag, until eventually he had enough books to start a reasonably large fire, burning the park down, his cat enjoying the heat from the fire

Ensorceled 6y ago

I'm trying to figure out HOW this is an analogy for the comment you are replying to and can't. Can you explain?

afarrell 6y ago
The person going to clean the park is the maintainer of some Open source software, offered for the public good. The monk handing over the book is the person who has done the work to write a pull request and gift it to the maintainer. The request for a donation is the cultural expectation of reciprocity. A maintainer now feels pressure to accept the work of reviewing the PR. Yes, they can say no, but it feels bad and can motivate someone to stop maintaining open source software.
- Ensorceled 6y ago
  That makes no sense, the analogy is wrong on all counts. An open source project I initiate is not a "public good". I'm sharing it; I still own the copyright. The monk handing over the book in the park has done no work on the park, they are a user NOT a contributor. In fact, probably a bunch of the trash I'm picking up are those pamphlets. I'm an atheist so the pamphlet is equivalent, at best, to a spam pull request. > The request for a donation is the cultural expectation of reciprocity. This is a completely different expectation that the open source expectation. I, personally, feel no guilt at all for telling people proselytizing to go away as I've done nothing to give them the expectation that their proselytizing would be welcome and most people proselytizing expect to be rejected constantly. Contributing back to open source is expected and usually desirable so the expectation that the contribution will be accepted. Also, the monk is ASKING FOR A CONTRIBUTION not giving one.