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The headline is obviously true; nobody should expect unlimited free support from any free software maintainer. But the author goes a step further, and refuses
by teddyh 5y ago
The headline is obviously true; nobody should expect unlimited free support from any free software maintainer. But the author goes a step further, and refuses to even look at or read a bug report, unless they’re paid to do so. This is certainly their prerogative, but it is a bit more extreme than what is the current norm. They also do not want to provide a user forum for users to help each other, which is also the author’s prerogative, but it works against the author’s putative goal of being bothered less about problems with the software.
Being this far from the normal software maintainer behavior is of course permitted, but common courtesy demands that these deviations be clearly specified to users. There should be a “I DO NOT ACCEPT, READ OR LOOK AT ANY BUG REPORTS UNLESS YOU PAY ME” warning label on the project page.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- franciscop 5y agoIt literally says it there, in big capital letters in the Apache used on the Racoon software: > software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. Or the very common MIT license: > THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED Is that not enough? Developers providing support is a nice touch on top of what the license says, and I'd argue that even if it's normalized it should not be assumed, and we should do a better job to make sure that users of open source software know that any support provided is indeed an extra, super nice plus, not something to expect/demand.
- ChrisMarshallNY 5y agoAs someone that ran a fairly intense open-source infrastructure for a decade (before it was taken off my hands, and is now a community effort), I can say that I don't mind bug reports, and I may choose to fix them, but being a whiny little snot gets you nothing from me. Also -and this is my fave-, people reporting "features I want" as bugs; followed by increasingly shrill demands that I "fix" their "bug."
- bombcar 5y agoAs an aside this is a huge area that non-programmers can support a project - learn enough to filter bug reports help free up developer time for other things.
- teddyh 5y agoWarranty is something other than support. And regardless of what the license text says, this is not usual behavior, and users deserve adequate notice of it.
- franciscop 5y agoWhy do users "deserve" any extra work from open source authors, who are already literally giving away their work and time for free?
- voakbasda 5y agoOne problem that I see is that conventionally developers will at least look over reports, so this goes against cultural norms. If you don’t know you need to pay, you might expect some initial feedback. Personally, I wouldn’t, as I think most projects absolutely suck at providing support. I also have to wonder how badly this affects his sales funnel? Seems like a good way to make potential clients look for another project or developer to work with. This kind of attitude would be an instant turn off for me.
- SpicyLemonZest 5y agoIt seems to me that the only way we can do a better job is by encouraging developers who choose not to offer support to make that explicit. Establishing a norm among the small set of people who read abstract discussions on open source principles isn't going to accomplish much.
- ipaddr 5y agoShouldn't the opposite happen? 'I will provide support label'
- jotm 5y agoNo one reads those ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- Zababa 5y agoWhy would they read the warning label on the product page then?