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To be fair, I run a news reader and you wouldn't believe some of the hate mail I receive. I just assumed he received much more of it and not enough of the posit
by conesus 13y ago
To be fair, I run a news reader and you wouldn't believe some of the hate mail I receive. I just assumed he received much more of it and not enough of the positive mail.
Also, when you're at the business end of a press blitz, you get overwhelmed and can make irrational decisions that you might come to regret.
- robflynn 13y agoIt was the same for me when I was project lead for Gaim/Pidgin. I was lead for something like 6 years and I eventually got tired of the hate. Sure, there was plenty of praise, too. But the harassment eventually became annoying. It hit it's breaking point when someone folks managed to figure out my cell phone number and would call me at all sorts of hours (3am once!) to "tell me about their ideas." I changed my cell number but it eventually happened again. Most of my interactions with users were positive, though. But, the various legal issues, hateful folks, and my day job suddenly taking more time I decided to give it up and pass it on to someone else. I had already become mostly observational/maintenance on the project in my last year there anyways. Slight digressions aside, I was fairly young when I got with the project and it was surprisingly to me how angry some people could be for no reason at all.
- georgiecasey 13y agoBig difference is you weren't being paid! I had a free and ad-free app on Android and I got some abuse about missing features. I took it down after a while. The sense of entitlement was unreal. Now if I was making $50k a day, I'd take all the abuse that could have been thrown at me!
- grey-area 13y agoImagine that abuse and entitlement scaled up by 10000, would you still want the money?
- sergiotapia 13y agoYes. I can stuff my ears with wads of $100 bills to cancel the noise from peasants.
- judk 13y agoOr just hire someone to sort your mail.
- georgiecasey 13y agoyes. it's only the internet, not like people roaring it in the street.
- NamTaf 13y agoActually it was the media and others showing up at his house, as per the article.
- NPC82 13y agoPidgin/gaim fan here - thank you. I think I started using it just before the time of the name change and it's had an enormously positive impact on my life. That might sound silly but it was one of the few Linux programs I knew how to install and configure at the time.
- robflynn 13y agoThat makes me happy. Sounds like you came into it just as I was stepping away. I pretty much stayed through the name change and then split. :)
- judk 13y agoThanks for doing more than your share. Pidgin/Gaim were great. Pidgin still is.
- robflynn 13y agoThanks! :)
- _nedR 13y agoOh hi, you're the dev of pidgin? I have a couple of awesome ideas I want to sell to you. I'll call you with the details...
- robflynn 13y agoSorry, you've got the wrong number. Hello, Tmobile??