I have several modules on CPAN, some of them are quite popular and of those, there are two for which I feel very proud and so I try to improve them as much as I can, adding new features and solving any bugs reported almost immediately.

I got several requests from help and bug reports every week. Increasingly, most bug reports are just help requests from people using the module in the wrong way, though sometimes the bug reports are real, and in some rare cases, behind and innocent request for help lays a real bug.

Most of the times, I can differentiate between real bug reports and requests for help at first sight. If it is a bug, I solve it. If it is a request from help and is something simple I try to help, otherwise, I redirect him to forums like this. My time is limited.

I get request for different kinds of people: those that know very little about Perl and those that are real experts, those that have problem solving skills and those that are completely obtuse, those that are educated about how to properly report a problem and those that just say “it doesn’t work, solve it!”, those that care about my time and those that don’t.

Sometimes I get the worst of everything: bug requests that I can not cleanly classify as requests for help, from people that know very little Perl, obtuse, that don’t know how to properly report bugs and that do not care a dime about my time or dedication.

Over the last few weeks I have been dealing with one of this, I have put a lot of effort trying to solve an nonexistent bug and I am annoyed, very annoyed.

I don’t mind if he doesn’t know Perl or if he doesn’t have problem solving skills, that doesn’t annoy me.

I mind he doesn’t care about my time and I mind he doesn’t care about reporting bugs properly giving me all the information (it is just another way of not caring about my time).

Why am I telling you that? (I am doing it anonymously in order to not reveal the identity of the other person, so I am not mocking him).

I am telling you that just to make you aware of it.

Because you may report bugs or ask for help to other open source developers (it can even be me again). For you, it may be just some way of getting your work done, solve some little problem itching you. And that's the point, it is your work, it is your problem. Do not abuse the willingness of others to help you.

But I want to go even further.

In real life, if you ask some friend to do something significant for you, you would try to compensate him in some way. Invite him to dinner, make a present, whatever.

Here in open source land, we tend to think that everything is free, gratis.

So, it goes as follows: you ask for help, he helps you, you say thank you, bye bye. That’s all.

Well, if just a couple of mails were involved, ten minutes dedication, that’s right.

If there have been several mails, hours of dedication and a real commitment from the person helping you to do your work and solve your problem, just saying “Thank You” is not good enough.

It’s just impolite and shabby. It is in real life and it is over the Internet.

In reply to Sometimes, just saying "Thank You" is not good enough by Anonymous Monk

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