Re: Valuing non-code contributions -- was Re: systemd - so much energy wasted in quarreling

[Rob Owens <rowens@ptd.net>]

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Rob Owens" <rowens@ptd.net>
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> > From: <____@debian.org>
> 
> > Debian also was always and will always stay technically defined by those
> > volunteering to make it what it is. By extension, it is explicitly not
> > defined by those not putting work (but only words) into it; unmaintained
> > software and code paths are routinely removed when not enough volunteers
> > keep the things working, and that's a good thing.
> 
> I don't mean to single out the poster of this comment, because it is
> something I've seen repeated by several Debian developers and some
> non-developers.  Other forms of it are "If you want that fixed, please
> submit a patch", or the response I got to bug 762116, "Code changes the
> world".
<snip>

The OP contacted me off list.  I accept that he didn't mean his comments to be as broad as I took them to be, and I don't have any hard feelings.  I hope he doesn't either.  Regardless, I want to make sure my intention of my post is clear:

Recently someone on this list made the very good point that we should be careful not to de-motivate the developers.  I would just add that we should be careful as well not to de-motivate the non-coding contributors.  That's all.

-Rob