On 2003-12-23 02:04:53 +0000 ed sharpe <esharpe@uswest.net> wrote:
perhaps we could also hope that there are some programmers on this project for purely altruistic reasons and not trying to milk $$ from each line of code.... sometimes things need to get done just for the pure reason they need to get done....
I am quite uphappy about this email. I may as well write that "we could also hope that there are some librarians who work for purely altruistic reasons and not trying to milk $$ from each collection". We all know that programmers need money to live, just like librarians, so why be so hostile to the idea? Library free software interests me. There are some libraries which are real assets to their communities and could benefit from it, but I have no grant funding any more. I have to make money to live and koha-based projects are part of that. There is a lot of koha work that I do for free, including things that "need to get done" but no-one will pay for. I cannot afford to help everyone for free, so I pick a few things at a time which look like fun, good ideas and worthwhile. I hope that someone appreciates it, even if you don't. The paid work is on top of that, extra to the time that I would spend on koha anyway. If we've no paid work on koha, that time gets filled with other paid work because it has to be. Payment brings extra programmer time to koha. (Don't worry about my email writing: I type very quickly.) Those priorities are determined by what the payer wants, so if your idea doesn't get worked on for free and it's important to you, consider trying it commercially. Maybe smecc can't afford to do that. I can't find details about staff or funding on its web site. Off the top of my head, I can't recall what they contributed or offered to koha. A quick search for smecc on the lists gives the LoC request many times, including some BLOCK CAPS SHOUTING, links to other projects, and an unhelpful "we're not using koha" reply to a survey, cc'd to the developers (to annoy them?). I think people wanting free help need to be more open about their institution and reasons, and nicer to potential helpers. I suspect it will be the same with any of Pat's suggested groups. No-one donates to people who offend them, even a charity.
(remember folks to make it print out the library of congress catalog number instead of the Dewey number it is just one field you are dealing with! )
I don't know/remember what's required for this. I probably won't do it unless I need it, because I've other things to do and it now makes me think of this unhappy exchange. I think you should reconsider your methods of motivating people. Maybe you can find out what has to be done and record it on bug report 498. -- MJR/slef My Opinion Only and possibly not of any group I know. Please http://remember.to/edit_messages on lists to be sure I read http://mjr.towers.org.uk/ gopher://g.towers.org.uk/ slef@jabber.at Creative copyleft computing services via http://www.ttllp.co.uk/