Slapping People For Help

I can tell you one thing: if IBM had written Perl, this would have never happened. Maybe there aren't enough alpha and beta testers, maybe developers don't have the time to write enough warning messages. What's certain is that Perl is not seen as a product, and the members of the community it attempts to serve are not being looked upon as customers. And that's the very difference between Open source and closed source software. What good is it's free, if it is deceiving its users about the problems it claims to solve?

Do you often find that insinuating that people are ignorant, malicious, sloppy, or stupid makes them likely to help you?

Comment on Slapping People For Help

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Slapping People For Help by perldeveloper (Scribe) on Aug 13, 2004 at 19:21 UTC
Maybe I was trying to convey too many ideas and feelings out of context (on one hand I'm carefully explaining the problem and seeking professional advice, on the other hand I'm criticizing the ones responsible). In the right context, anything can be made to sound the way it was intended, and I do apologize if this particular bit sounded too harsh.	[reply]
Re^2: Slapping People For Help by chromatic (Archbishop) on Aug 13, 2004 at 21:50 UTC
I understand the frustration. It's sometimes difficult to remember that dozens of people have put thousands of hours into a project given away freely for other people to use when you find an apparent bug, but it's very wise to keep that in mind. Your description of the problem was very good, though.	[reply]
Re: Slapping People For Help by PhilHibbs (Hermit) on Aug 16, 2004 at 17:19 UTC
I think the point is that you don't need to worry about that if you're talking to a commercial vendor. It's a shift in attitude that anyone moving to F/OSS, hopefully, will get used to.	[reply]
Re^2: Slapping People For Help by chromatic (Archbishop) on Aug 16, 2004 at 18:49 UTC
I've talked to proprietary vendors before. Maybe some don't cause you to worry, but those I can think of did not inspire me with confidence.	[reply]
Re^2: Slapping People For Help by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Aug 17, 2004 at 08:25 UTC
Barnraising your IT might be an interesting read. Make sure to read the comments on sentiments about commercial vendors and contracts. Makeshifts last the longest.	[reply]