Re: setting expectations

[Michael Harnois <mharnois willinet net>]

Jan Gentsch <gentsch@ifm.uni-hamburg.de> writes:

> You should just assume everyone is willing to help out, but isn't always
> able to.

If that were a valid assumption, one might choose to hold it, but it's
not. There are people who are willing to help, and then there are
people who believe, as my mother liked to put it, that "their shit
don't stink." The first kind of person is the kind that will make the
free software effort a success, because they leave the newbie and the
less skilled with the perception that the free software community has
a place for them and will support them. The second, no matter how
skilled they might be, are a destructive force in the effort because
they encourage the perception that the free software community is a
place where geeks come for group masturbation. I've encountered lots
of both.

--
Michael D. Harnois, Redeemer Lutheran Church, Washburn, IA 
mharnois@willinet.net                      aa0bt@aa0bt.ampr.org 
 Hell is full of good meanings and wishings. 
     -- George Herbert