I remember reading an article where the author explained why telling this is free, you can fork, or send a pull request instead of complaining is a form of ableism.
An analogy, which is not 100% accurate, which I used to explain it to ither people is, "it is not very different from a carpenter telling you, ‘the wood is here, the tools also, you can do it yourself it you didn’t like what I did’.
The point is software development is a skill. Not everyone can have that skill. It takes training and practice to be good in the craft. A user of the product does not need the skill to operate it. Never think it is okay to tell people “just fork it” or “why don’t you send a pull request instead of complaining?”.
At the same time, I completely acknowledge that there are some entitled assholes who don’t understand or care about the open source philosophy and how it works. I just wanted to point out that asking to contribute or asking to fork is not the right way to address it.
If I want to paint apples, and you want a painting of pears, it’s not ableist for me to tell you no. It’s not ablist to iterate out your possible options for getting a pear painting either. And that’s what he’s done.
Now, the entire painting profession might be ableist in that there are certainly barriers to entry. But it’s not a single artist’s responsibility to fix painting as a whole.
My point is, if you truly think the situation with raync is ableist, help develop tools so that more people can program. Enable people to program. Don’t just shout down the guy who said “go program”. That doesn’t help.
A paraplegic can’t build a house, but can learn to code.
Sure there are people with cognitive disabilities who might not be able to do it, but you can’t expect every open source project to be completely accessible even to the most severely cognitively impaired. That’s a great way to kill the open source community.
Commerical products should absolutely be required by law to provide reasonable accessibility, because they have the resources and manpower to do so and are driven by a profit motive. Grants should be available to help smaller companies meet these requirements so they’re not disadvantaged relative to the big ones.
But using ableism to justify making excessive demands on open-source project maintainers who in many cases are doing it solo and for free as a passion project, is kind of absurd. And where does it stop? Can I post a silly little flash game on a public git repo intended as nothing more than a personal project for learning Lua scripts, and then some internet rando tells me I have to add full interpretive ASL, real-time alternative text, and optional eye-tracking controls? If that’s above my level, does that mean I can’t post my silly little flash game?
Also, ability is not the same thing as aptitude. Not knowing how to code isn’t a disability any more than not knowing how to wire a house. I can’t tell an electrician (specifically a hobbyist who works for free) that he needs to rewire my house for me just because I don’t know how to do it. I can learn home wiring, or I can pay a professional. But expecting every hobbyist to serve my needs for free just because I don’t have their skill sets would be insane.
But expecting every hobbyist to serve my needs for free just because I don’t have their skill sets would be insane.
I think this mindset shows up often on the Internet because many posters are children. It is normal for them to be given an assignment and have to complete it without compensation. So they think that’s how the world works.
I think many adults are capable of having the mentalities of children, especially when it’s effectively taboo to gently correct behavior.
Abuse is wrong and shouldn’t be tolerated, obviously, but we’ve overcorrected as a society. Teachers, parents, mentors, etc. need to have effective ways of setting ground rules without demeaning and belittling like was so common when I was growing up, or physical violence like the generations before mine experienced.
It just takes some emotional intelligence. It’s possible. Families like that exist, they’re just the exceptions rather than the rule. And people from those healthier backgrounds are by far the more well-adjusted members of society as adults.
As a disabled open source developer, it’s almost as if the universe guided me toward this horrendous take specifically to annoy me. If you’re trolling, you did a good job of it.
I like this analogy. One virtue that it has is: Obviously, not everyone can realistically learn to do their own carpentry. It requires a certain amount of time, space, opportunity, capacity for spatial reasoning, and some minimum level of able-bodiedness. None of which are universally available to everyone.
You’re so self-righteous, you’re plowing through stuff without reading what you’re responding to. This isn’t what you said before, and even your clarification makes no sense in context.
It doesn’t work, anyway. If you can’t build the shelf yourself, what compels the carpenter to make it to your specifications? Even if you paid him? Nothing.
The trouble is, you insist on framing this in terms of the carpenter’s rights. It’s an impoverished view. No one else is looking at it that way, no one is disputing his rights.
what compels the carpenter to make it to your specifications? Even if you paid him? Nothing.
Violating a contract has penalties. Yes he can ignore it and then give your money back with the potential of being required to give extra money back because of the contract violation.
The trouble is, you insist on framing this in terms of the carpenter’s rights.
It wasn’t my analogy. I’m working with what you gave me.
disputing his rights.
Demanding he work for free is disputing his rights.
I remember reading an article where the author explained why telling this is free, you can fork, or send a pull request instead of complaining is a form of ableism.
An analogy, which is not 100% accurate, which I used to explain it to ither people is, "it is not very different from a carpenter telling you, ‘the wood is here, the tools also, you can do it yourself it you didn’t like what I did’.
The point is software development is a skill. Not everyone can have that skill. It takes training and practice to be good in the craft. A user of the product does not need the skill to operate it. Never think it is okay to tell people “just fork it” or “why don’t you send a pull request instead of complaining?”.
At the same time, I completely acknowledge that there are some entitled assholes who don’t understand or care about the open source philosophy and how it works. I just wanted to point out that asking to contribute or asking to fork is not the right way to address it.
That is ridiculous.
If I want to paint apples, and you want a painting of pears, it’s not ableist for me to tell you no. It’s not ablist to iterate out your possible options for getting a pear painting either. And that’s what he’s done.
Now, the entire painting profession might be ableist in that there are certainly barriers to entry. But it’s not a single artist’s responsibility to fix painting as a whole.
My point is, if you truly think the situation with raync is ableist, help develop tools so that more people can program. Enable people to program. Don’t just shout down the guy who said “go program”. That doesn’t help.
A paraplegic can’t build a house, but can learn to code.
Sure there are people with cognitive disabilities who might not be able to do it, but you can’t expect every open source project to be completely accessible even to the most severely cognitively impaired. That’s a great way to kill the open source community.
Commerical products should absolutely be required by law to provide reasonable accessibility, because they have the resources and manpower to do so and are driven by a profit motive. Grants should be available to help smaller companies meet these requirements so they’re not disadvantaged relative to the big ones.
But using ableism to justify making excessive demands on open-source project maintainers who in many cases are doing it solo and for free as a passion project, is kind of absurd. And where does it stop? Can I post a silly little flash game on a public git repo intended as nothing more than a personal project for learning Lua scripts, and then some internet rando tells me I have to add full interpretive ASL, real-time alternative text, and optional eye-tracking controls? If that’s above my level, does that mean I can’t post my silly little flash game?
Also, ability is not the same thing as aptitude. Not knowing how to code isn’t a disability any more than not knowing how to wire a house. I can’t tell an electrician (specifically a hobbyist who works for free) that he needs to rewire my house for me just because I don’t know how to do it. I can learn home wiring, or I can pay a professional. But expecting every hobbyist to serve my needs for free just because I don’t have their skill sets would be insane.
I think this mindset shows up often on the Internet because many posters are children. It is normal for them to be given an assignment and have to complete it without compensation. So they think that’s how the world works.
I think many adults are capable of having the mentalities of children, especially when it’s effectively taboo to gently correct behavior.
Abuse is wrong and shouldn’t be tolerated, obviously, but we’ve overcorrected as a society. Teachers, parents, mentors, etc. need to have effective ways of setting ground rules without demeaning and belittling like was so common when I was growing up, or physical violence like the generations before mine experienced.
It just takes some emotional intelligence. It’s possible. Families like that exist, they’re just the exceptions rather than the rule. And people from those healthier backgrounds are by far the more well-adjusted members of society as adults.
As a disabled open source developer, it’s almost as if the universe guided me toward this horrendous take specifically to annoy me. If you’re trolling, you did a good job of it.
I like this analogy. One virtue that it has is: Obviously, not everyone can realistically learn to do their own carpentry. It requires a certain amount of time, space, opportunity, capacity for spatial reasoning, and some minimum level of able-bodiedness. None of which are universally available to everyone.
Not his problem. You didn’t pay the carpenter.
So the fact that not everyone can be a carpenter would become the carpenter’s problem, if I had paid him?
Huh?
Yes. That’s how everything works. If you don’t know how to build a shelf by yourself or don’t have the time, you pay a carpenter to do what you want.
It’s now the carpenter’s problem to make the shelf with the specifications that you gave him.
You’re so self-righteous, you’re plowing through stuff without reading what you’re responding to. This isn’t what you said before, and even your clarification makes no sense in context.
It doesn’t work, anyway. If you can’t build the shelf yourself, what compels the carpenter to make it to your specifications? Even if you paid him? Nothing.
The trouble is, you insist on framing this in terms of the carpenter’s rights. It’s an impoverished view. No one else is looking at it that way, no one is disputing his rights.
No need for insults.
Violating a contract has penalties. Yes he can ignore it and then give your money back with the potential of being required to give extra money back because of the contract violation.
It wasn’t my analogy. I’m working with what you gave me.
Demanding he work for free is disputing his rights.
Where is this happening?
You don’t want him taking shortcuts with AI. He would need to spend more time working on rsync to make you happy.
If you pay the carpenter to make something, he should make what you asked him to.
If the carpenter makes free stuff out of his own kindness, you don’t get to complain that it isn’t exactly what you asked for.