Martin Cooper wrote:
On Jan 14, 2008 10:40 PM, Frank W. Zammetti <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Don't forget, I'm not a committer, I'm not an
Apache member in any way, so me casting a non-binding +1 vote means
squat other than "yeah, one extra set of eyes has looked at it and
thinks it looks good".
Oh, I don't think that follows at all. Most of supporting a release is not
making commits. It's helping folks on the lists, submitting bug reports and
patches, updating documentation, and all manner of other things. Those are
things that any contributor can do, not just committers, so I'm not sure I
understand why you believe non-committers would get a "bye" on their +1
votes.
That's a fair question, but I have an answer for it. Put simply, I feel
that anyone officially made a member of a project team has accepted a
greater level of responsibility than someone in the larger user community.
In the same way that if I participate in a Microsoft beta program, and I
tell them that the beta looks solid, that doesn't imply anything about
any support I'm willing, ready and able to contribute, it's the same in
a community-driven project. I may still be willing and able to write
Wiki entries about the product, help polish docs, answer questions on
mailing lists, things like that, but me telling them the build looks
good doesn't imply I'm going to be around to do any of that because my
responsibility begins and ends with validating the beta. It's different
for a member of the development team: it's a higher level of responsibility.
If this wasn't all implicitly true, what would ever be the difference
between a binding and non-binding vote? Wouldn't they be relegated to
the same level of meaning? Clearly binding votes carry more weight, but
on what basis? I'd argue at least part of it is that implied
responsibility, that implied willingness to support the release, which a
non-binding vote doesn't carry, and I think rightly so.
Now, I do however think that in practice it's probably true that most
non-members that take the time to vote also take the time to provide
support. Speaking for myself, I've certainly answered my share of
questions on the lists, offered help many times, have contributed to the
Wiki and have supplied some patches and enhancements, so it's pretty
clear *for me* that even a non-binding vote has meaning, some implied
responsibility. This is probably the case for most voters, but I don't
believe there is the same implied expectation (a word I've hesitated to
use previously) that there is for binding votes, it's just good
community when it happens.
Martin Cooper
Frank
--
Frank W. Zammetti
Author of "Practical Ajax Projects With Java Technology"
(2006, Apress, ISBN 1-59059-695-1)
and "JavaScript, DOM Scripting and Ajax Projects"
(2007, Apress, ISBN 1-59059-816-4)
and "Practical DWR 2 Projects"
(2008, Apress, ISBN 1-59059-941-1)
Java Web Parts - http://javawebparts.sourceforge.net
Supplying the wheel, so you don't have to reinvent it!
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