To the Armchair Directors

[Gary W. Swearingen]

Peter Schultz <pmes at bis.midco.net> writes:

> Don't piss off the programmers!  ;-)
>
> If you're not a programmer, restrain yourself from suggesting how easy
> this or that thing would be to do.  These guys simply *do not* need
> your "input".  Remember that this is *open source* and that if you
> think something is worth doing that nobody else is working on, you
> need to take on the project yourself.

The above sort of user-off-putting attitude seems inappropriate to
this mailing list, if we're to believe the Handbook's description,
which begins:

   Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-CURRENT

   This is the mailing list for users of FreeBSD-CURRENT.

This list seems to be the main interface between users and developers,
where the later can get a sense of what the former think of their OS
and what's wrong with it, in design as well as implementation.
Otherwise, they should just isolate themselves in hackers@ or start up
a freebsd-current-dev.  Jumping on someone for thinking out loud about
the difficulty of a better (?) design just pisses off users instead of
developers.  Save it for the -hackers list or start up a -current-dev
list where developers can isolate their delicate sensibilities from
us whiny users.

Developers shouldn't be angered by users' suggestions; they should be
happy to still HAVE users and should not try to tell them what to say
in their own forum.  Otherwise, get the DOC people to include more
accurate comments about the mailing list.  If the quote above isn't
good enough for the Handbook (where they're less likely to piss off
users), it isn't good for ambushing users here.