55 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
55 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
[[!meta title="Searching for a maintainer for offlineimap and hpodder"]]
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As [John Goerzen](http://www.complete.org/JohnGoerzen) created at
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least one useful software,
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[offlineimap](http://software.complete.org/software/projects/show/offlineimap),
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which I daily use, I think I owe him at least this article.
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He
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[describes an interesting problem](http://changelog.complete.org/archives/1463-moral-obligations-of-free-software-authors), we FOSS developers have:
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He is happy with his software, but others would like to see more features.
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I know that situation very well, if you think you're done, somebody just
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pops up with a new situation or problem and I think:
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Yeah, how to solve that?
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Yes, if I think it's an interesting problem, I take the time
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to discuss it and maybe to develop a solution for it.
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But sometimes I've other priorities (like family, studies or
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- believe it or not - to enjoy the fine weather outside) and
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then I reply:
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Dear hacker, cool problem! Here are my quality requirements,
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can you just send me a patch that applies cleanly against
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current development code (prefarable a git source)?
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I cannot implement every (sensible) feature in software I've written
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and I don't think it's my duty. That's what FOSS is all about:
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If people care, they fork or create a patch.
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If not, it's probably not worth implementing it anyway.
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Regarding the ressources you're providing, John, I handle it that
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way: I always provide
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* the source within version control (so things don't get messed up) and
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* a public contact point with archives (i.e. a mailing list)
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These two points ensure that everybody who wants to contribute, can so.
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I don't think a bugtracker, wiki, etc is worth it for most projects,
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(you don't have bugs in your software anyway, do you? ;-), but
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If people care, they can setup a wiki, bugtracker, etc themselves.
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Coming back to the title, as said John is searching for a maintainer for
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* [offlineimap](http://software.complete.org/software/projects/show/offlineimap) and
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* [hpodder](http://software.complete.org/software/projects/show/hpodder).
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If you're reading this article, you may be interested in helping him ;-)
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[[!tag foss]]
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