State of Pidgin: Attracting and Maintaining New Contributors

[Gary Kramlich]

On Tue, Oct 3, 2017 at 5:52 PM, Matěj Cepl <mcepl at cepl.eu> wrote:

> On 2017-10-03, 15:11 GMT, Gary Kramlich wrote:
> > That said we have much bigger problems than that right now.
> > We don't need a million drive by contributions that people
> > aren't going to see all the way through.  We need people that
> > are going to stick through the entire pull request process and
> > hopefully continue to be involved in the project.
> >
> [...]
> >
> > That's okay.  As I mentioned earlier, we're not interested in drive by
> > contributions that aren't going to seem them through :)  We're having
> > a hard enough time keeping up with the contributions that we
> > do have where they have seen them through.
>
> Just to note here, that you actually do not want to lower
> barriers for new contributors. It is perfectly legitimate
> strategy (not that I think it is wise), but it would be probably
> wise to say it aloud. Something like (courtesy of dwm
> developers): “Because dwm is customized through editing its
> source code, it’s pointless to make binary packages of it. This
> keeps its userbase small and elitist. No novices asking stupid
> questions.”?
>

At this point in time we are not well equipped to support drive by
contributors.  If we were to make that easier by using the mythical github
unicorn you claim exists, we would be doing both the contributors and
ourselves a disservice.    There's nothing more than that.  Once we're in a
position where we can support those contributors, sure it'll be
considered.  But it's crap like this from the git-bros that are irritating
as hell.  Next thing I know you're going to be telling me that I'll only
get contributors if I enforce a requirement that contributors must use a
specific editor...

That aside, you still seem to be insisting that github is this magic place
where people just fix your stuff for you.  I would love to see some real
data on it from someone that makes this claim, but to date, no one has been
able to provide it.


> Sorry, really shutting up, just couldn’t resist.


We'll see...  I'm replying because I need to respond to this for the
project, not to play into your fantasy world where you think I haven't
weighed the pros and cons.


> Best,
>
> Matěj
> --
> http://matej.ceplovi.cz/blog/, Jabber: mcepl<at>ceplovi.cz
> GPG Finger: 3C76 A027 CA45 AD70 98B5  BC1D 7920 5802 880B C9D8
>
> God is not worried about my financial situation.


Thanks,

--
Gary Kramlich <grim at reaperworld.com>
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