> It was a really hard decision for me to change from the FLY! world to
> FlightGear at the middle of this year. I was only watching the mailing
> lists for a long time and was aware of the rough and often very
> unfriendly tone you find here. Sometimes you have the impression of
> "stay away, you are disturbing" or "grow up until you can play with us"
> or "it is our toy, we don't want you".
I understand how it's possible to get that impression; I've gotten that
impression in other venues, when I was attempting to interact with people
who 1) knew a lot more about the topic at hand than I did, or 2) knew
each other much better than any of them knew me, etc. At the same time,
though, I have to say that I myself never got that impression here.
The only times that I've ever had the impression that a user was being
reacted to somewhat coldly or harshly was when developers were being told
what to do. Nobody likes being told what to do, least of all people who
have donated a ton and a half of their limited free time to give something
to others.
> Please, there are also a *lot* of very nice and helpful people and I am
> *very* thankful for all the *personal* help I got in the last months but
> if we freely invite people to post their problems on the lists (in the
> AVSIM forum there are several posts which suggest to mail the problems
> to th *developer* ((not user)) list) then we will get here what we have
> - very helpless, naive and often very *young* users with very
> *difficult* problems related to the wide spread of PC hardware and software.
You're right -- as the user base of FG increases, there's going to be
a lot more people running into a lot more problems, and reporting those
problems in sketchy ways that are on the surface uninformative ("I tried
FlightGear and it doesn't work. Please help."). And I agree that as
things stand, those users and their problems aren't addressed *optimally*.
Heck, I don't think bug reports even from clued users are handled
optimally (I do believe that a project this size could benefit in a
number of ways -- both development and PR-related -- from a BTS, for
example). But the main reason this is so is the limited number of
developers and the limited amount of time they have. And as long
as that's the case, finding fault with the developer community for
not handling naive users more gingerly and effectively risks coming
across as "you need to do things the way I say, rather than the way
you want."
There are people who have stepped up to address parts of these issues.
I've noticed recently a lot of attention being given to documentation
by some comparatively new contributors, which I think is fabulous. In
the end, that's the solution to issues like this -- people with free
time and interest contributing both.
> And, we always should be aware that only a *very* !!! small group of
> user who have difficulties with FlightGear are motivated to ask for
> help. Many, many (and I know that from own experiences with friends and
> colleages) throw it away after a quick test when there are problems,
> they won't mail, post or show up as an important group.
I agree with this 100% -- I've seen it. But at the same time, it's
also important to be aware that we have a *very* !!! small group of
developers, and making their involvement unpleasant for them is the
fast lane to their losing interest and thinking "why am I subjecting
myself to this when I could be at the pub drinking a beer and watching
my favorite soccer team lose again?" I've seen *that* happen a lot
of times too.
-c
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