One of the huge strengths of Perl (in my opinion) is the community behind it.Once you start breaking things down into “the cool kids” and “losers” (as you're doing above), that community is divided into the haves and the have nots.

Gary Lawrence Murphy, “Barnraising your IT”:

Say your community shows up to build you a barn, and you sit on the porch drinking lemonade, criticising their carpentry and pestering them for a completion date, well, just how ludicrous is that scenario? Yet this is exactly what we are doing when we sit back like some ancient king, expecting free software served to us, taking what we need, giving nothing in return except maybe money… or “advocacy.”

People who do not contribute are not “community.” And note that I (and, I’d assume by his posts, chromatic) use a very non-exclusive definition of “contribute” here. Anyone with 10 minutes of time can do something useful. There are no haves and have-nots, there are only those who drink the lemonade themselves vs. those who offer some to those building their barn.

(Update: I missed saying that this is not to say anything about how easy it is to contribute 10 minutes to Perl 6. But just attempting to do so and then outlining why you had a hard time doing it is in itself a contribution – which goes to show that all you need is the will to help.)

Makeshifts last the longest.


In reply to Re^2: No, "We" Don't Have to Do Anything by Aristotle
in thread No, "We" Don't Have to Do Anything by chromatic

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