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February 25, 2003
Open Source != Free Help
One of the projects I work upon is the PHP project. I somehow became the maintainer of the ODBC module in a short period of time. Typically this is fine as I've made a lot of good friends through the project, and have increased my code knowledge by a significant portion. Like any project, I've had my good times and bad times with it. I don't hold any of that against it right now.
One of the problems though I've found are the users. As a sysadmin you hear quotes to the tune of "This job would be great if it weren't for the (l)users" and other tidbits like so. Under an Open Source project though things become much different, where users throughout the world can suddenly instantly get in contact with an code author and question them.
Sometimes this has a great pay off with interesting dialog going both ways. I've heard from some interesting people on various other projects, and have asked questions of others on projects. I like this part. The intelligent users.
The other 90% of emails I receive are the problem points for me. The requests for help or the "how do i do...". These are the emails that are generally not appreciated. Sterling Hughes has an interesting take on how he deals with these types of questions. I'm still debating the usefulness of this method.
My bigger problem with these users is the response when they realize you won't help them. Many become angry or irate, and feel the need to inform me that they will be switching to (insert alternative program/project here). There seems to be this misguided conception that because you got something for free, it should still be supported for free.
This makes me laugh especially hard when I realize that many of those asking questions are happily employed. I wonder how many of them realize that they are asking me to take my free time, give them an answer they could find with a few web searches, and not ask for anything in return. It seems rather one sided to me. I have no problem working on the software, typically it's designed to make my life easier. The fact that you as an end user find it to be useful too is an added bonus, but not a primary concern of mine.
Posted by Dan at February 25, 2003 07:03 AM
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Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Open Source != Free Help:
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