2015-03-19, 00:28
Yes I welcome feedback. No I do not need it. No users are not necessary for open source development - you are still thinking in the mentality of a product. The thing is that all developers are users - like I said before, there are no consumers in open source, only those who contribute more and those who contribute less. Without those who contribute, there is nothing.
I started skinning because I have used xbmc for about ten years - I still have a mechassault soft modded xbox sitting in a drawer somewhere. Basically there were certain features I wanted to see and I wanted to have a go at skinning because I like tinkering and building things. Since I did a whole bunch of work I thought I should share my work because others might like to use it and because I love xbmc/kodi and got so much value out of it that I wanted to give something back. This is how open source works... I will continue to skin regardless of whether or not there are users - however if the forums become too stressful for me to deal with then I will simply leave.
Also you say projects showing progress wouldnt have these types of questions, yet this behaviour is precisely what sparked this discussion. Hitcher was showing constant updates on ftv yet was constantly bombarded with these types of posts. It got to the point where a mod had to close the thread. When all the posts of this nature were split from the thread there were more than 8 pages - this for a skin where it had been clearly stated multiple times "no eta, will be released when its ready and not in an unfinished state"
This is why we need rules now, because this forum for developers has been abused by those who contribute little to the point that a thread for a really amazing looking skin had to be closed - hitcher already retired from skinning once, we dont want to lose a skinner like him again as he is so valuable to the skinning community - he has helped me with many a query - he is a source of so much skinning knowledge and a true asset to this community. Im interested in protecting those who contribute a lot not those who contribute little. If developers cannot feel safe from a constant and tiring barage of these types of posts in a development forum then we have no choice but to remove ourselves entirely and not interact with end users at all and just share our work with each other and no one else.
Imho the only value in having those who contribute little is the hope that they one day might contribute more.
I started skinning because I have used xbmc for about ten years - I still have a mechassault soft modded xbox sitting in a drawer somewhere. Basically there were certain features I wanted to see and I wanted to have a go at skinning because I like tinkering and building things. Since I did a whole bunch of work I thought I should share my work because others might like to use it and because I love xbmc/kodi and got so much value out of it that I wanted to give something back. This is how open source works... I will continue to skin regardless of whether or not there are users - however if the forums become too stressful for me to deal with then I will simply leave.
Also you say projects showing progress wouldnt have these types of questions, yet this behaviour is precisely what sparked this discussion. Hitcher was showing constant updates on ftv yet was constantly bombarded with these types of posts. It got to the point where a mod had to close the thread. When all the posts of this nature were split from the thread there were more than 8 pages - this for a skin where it had been clearly stated multiple times "no eta, will be released when its ready and not in an unfinished state"
This is why we need rules now, because this forum for developers has been abused by those who contribute little to the point that a thread for a really amazing looking skin had to be closed - hitcher already retired from skinning once, we dont want to lose a skinner like him again as he is so valuable to the skinning community - he has helped me with many a query - he is a source of so much skinning knowledge and a true asset to this community. Im interested in protecting those who contribute a lot not those who contribute little. If developers cannot feel safe from a constant and tiring barage of these types of posts in a development forum then we have no choice but to remove ourselves entirely and not interact with end users at all and just share our work with each other and no one else.
Imho the only value in having those who contribute little is the hope that they one day might contribute more.
