www.nico.schottelius.org/blog/offlineimap-and-hpodder-need-a-maintainer.mdwn
Nico Schottelius 9cb2769123 add tag
Signed-off-by: Nico Schottelius <nico@ikn.schottelius.org>
2010-04-21 09:38:20 +02:00

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