On Thu, Aug 07, 2003 at 11:46:20PM -0400, Nathanael Nerode wrote: > Andrew Suffield <asuffield@suffields.me.uk> wrote: > >Anybody who has to ask "Why should I/we/they contribute?" is not > >suitable for Debian. (The "answer", incidentally, is "because we can" > >or "because it's there", or some other variation; it is a goal in > >itself, and not a means to an end) > > OK, now *that* is just nonsense. People contribute because they: > > * use Debian and want to make it better > * want to do something which is made easier by contributing to Debian These are passable, and a variation on the same theme. > * want to contribute something to a project they respect > * want to help out Debian users > * want to help promote the goals of Debian These are bad reasons. > I'm sure there are other reasons. > > "Because it's there" is a non-reason. OK, maybe it was a > reasonable (if silly) answer for why to climb Mt. Everest. But Debian > isn't a natural feature of the landscape, and it certainly isn't an > exceptional and notable one. (Real reasons for climbing Mt. > Everest included "I like climbing mountains" and "It's the tallest > mountain in the world", which were both implicitly understood.) > > That 'reason' isn't going to get *anyone* to contribute to Debian. It > might get them to climb Mt. Everest, I suppose. That's funny. Those were all things I've heard from people who've been with the project for years. I don't think you're going to get it, either. It's basically the same question as "Why do people write free software?", and if you come up with "altruism", "politics", or "respect" then you're barking up the wrong tree. -- .''`. ** Debian GNU/Linux ** | Andrew Suffield : :' : http://www.debian.org/ | `. `' | `- -><- |
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