Join the Developers

[James Richard Tyrer]

christos gentsis wrote:
> actually this is normal... if someone doing something... whatever it
> is and he has a opinion and a plan about this... then he want help to
>  follow this plan... if any of us (the ppl that still live a
> parasitic life for the project) want to help... we have to follow the
> plan or to create a new project.... which means you get the code that
> exist... trough away whatever you don't like and do it in your way...
> and after go back and say: you pathetic dinosaurs... you see i was
> correct, it works better the new way... but if you are not able to do
> that... then they are not dinosaurs... they are experts... bat any
> way if they had an idea... they need help to develop this idea... not
> to change it... ;)

Chris, thank you very much for your response.  Your slightly humorous
description describes the problem much better than I have been able to.

The situation you correctly describe is what I feel needs to be changed 
for better collaboration.  Yes, this "normal" but that doesn't mean that 
it is the best way for a group to collaborate to produce software.

Yes, the maintainer of a project should have a plan and opinions on the 
best way to do things.  The question is how strong the opinions should be.

If these opinions are so strong that they don't want to fix bugs, there 
is a problem.  If they deny that bugs exist, there is a problem.

If these opinions are so strong that they don't want to follow the KDE 
UI standards, there is a problem.

If they resist outside help in finding, reporting, and fixing bugs, 
clearly their opinions are getting in the way of producing the product.

If they resist outside help in complying with the standards and with 
improving usability, there is a problem.

Yes, I have seen these problems and I can provide instances, but I don't 
want to pick on anyone.

I don't want to have to go to the lengths of proving that they are 
Dinosaurs.  I only have small suggestions to make minor improvements. 
Such improvements should be considered to be help in developing the 
idea, not attempts to change it.

KDE has a lot of rough edges.  Small time developers doing minor changes 
could fix these.  But, it appears that this is not what the maintainers 
want.  And, the reason appears to be the attitude you correctly 
describe.  In fact, they are probably more stubborn than people think 
that I am. :-)

-- 
JRT