24 Jul
2005
24 Jul
'05
1:09 p.m.
And there is of course a good reason not to make
programs
in development too easy to access: a point of view that I
like to call "pragmatic elitism".
As it gets easier for untrained novices to enter the realms
of an open source program, the quality of participation
descends. Bug reports become unhelpful. Feature trackers
become clogged with senseless ideas. Mailing lists burst
with incompetence. It doesn't have to be like this, but
from my experience I can tell that if you create software
for simple minded people, you get simple minded feedback.
As a developer, you feel a lot of frustration if this
happens. It might stall or harm development tremendously.
Intersting POV, and you're right.
So how can those people be kept away from bugtrackers and
devel mailing lists?
I really hope that as many people as possible can use and
benefit from free software, but yes, you're right, the above
points are valid.
I think it's great if "normal users" enter the free software
world, but those should perhaps use the software only and
shut up ;-) ?
Best regards
ce