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March 10, 2003
More comments on userland
Chuq Von Rospach has posted an interesting commentary on his interactions with end users. While the medium (appears) slightly different from my original post, it has many of the same connotations that were the inspiration to my original rant. I rather enjoyed the commentary, especially since many times I've had the same scenario.
It wasn't until I read the comment on the entry though that I became rather reflective. A BBS.... wow! I haven't thought about the days of BBS use in a while, and it seems rather funny to look behind me and see the machine I used to run a BBS from. The Quadra 700 was never a terribly fast computer, but it certainly did a lot for me during it's time. Now it collects dust and works as a rudimentary filing system.
What was more interesting is the reason why the comment poster quit running his BBS. The same reasons why Chuq made his post and I did mine. At least there is a constant turn around in this case. Eventually the service provider becomes tired, annoyed with being (ab)used, quits, and leaves the project to die. Hopefully things can be picked up by some new blood, moved along towards the old goals, and bring about some new momentum. It's worked before, after all thats how I got involved in PHP isn't it?
But what has left me to continue working on these projects? This was the question that left me thinking for a lot longer.
Is it fame or popularity? Definitely not, for the PHP project has not brought me either. At most a handful of people have come to recognize who I am and what I have done through the project. I'd even venture to say that my popularity is limited even within the PHP developers clique for having spoken my mind one too many times (the fallout of which is still being witnessed). Though on the other hand, my infamy has risen drastically, and that does look awfully close to fame. Hrm...
Is it the technology? I had to sit here and think about this one for awhile. Initially, while I was learning ODBC, I might have said yes to this. The same sentiments go towards things like IMAP and C programming though as well. Now a long time past, the glow has faded, and the code is no longer an intriguing new beast to be caught. Database technology typically doesn't change radically. This is a good thing despite what you might believe. JWZ and Miguel de Icaza (Feb 26th 2003 entry) ranted about this awhile back.
So if it's not any of these, what is it that keeps me working on a project? Well, in the case of the case of the PHP project, it has been the people. I've met some really interesting, talented, and intelligent people through the project. Some have become friends, some not. Many are spread across the world, providing varying degrees of opinions and insights on things I'd never have given a second thought. It's interesting to think that a sense of group identity does play such an important part in the motivation of one's own development cycle. Bills and monetary incentive can push you only so far before stress and exhaustion set in. But when you begin to feel you're failing your group, there always seems to be renewed interest and energy towards finishing. As cheesy as this might sound, watch and you'll see the effects of it every day. The number of people who request an @php.net address just to have one is amazing (I wish there were a log of these requests).
With this in mind, it was interesting to read a recent post by Joel On Software discussing many of the mechanisms in place to destroy this group identity. It went further on to discuss how software itself needs to be developed to further solidify these groups, rather than try to dissipate them. A very enlightening read that I would highly recommend.
Posted by Dan at March 10, 2003 10:11 PM