Re: Kickstarter was not successful... but it did help things...

[Doc O'Leary]

In article <mailman.9698.1387487872.10748.discuss-gnustep@gnu.org>,
 "Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller" <hns@goldelico.com> wrote:

> I think you have hit the nail on the head. Maybe not even intentionally.

Oh, it was intentional, even if my ability to express it may not be the 
best. :-)

> I think you faithfully assume that there is an overall direction.

Exactly the opposite.  As I have seen many times in work projects and 
seemingly *overwhelmingly* in open source efforts, failure to make 
progress has mainly to do with those setting directions and little to do 
with the abilities of those doing the coding.

> Everyone picks up some small fragment which promises the greatest fun (and 
> learning
> effect) and works on that. Therefore he can only write documentation for the 
> fragment
> he has been working on. So it is and remains patchwork.

That, in and of itself, wouldn't be a problem if they didn't *also* 
express a distain for those who wish to fit their efforts into a 
coherent whole.  I've never once suggested that people stop working on 
whatever it is they want to work on.  All I've been asking for is for 
them to do place their work into something larger.  It's kinda why I 
named my company what I did; it's my core thinking on how to behave 
cooperatively.

> So if not one person is standing up an saying "go there", we need some other
> means. E.g. a democratic one. Like an opinion poll and majority votes. Or we
> do a vote to empower a trustworthy person to define the overall directions 
> for
> e.g. one year.

But the community is clearly hostile to that aim.  As you said, this is 
a discussion that keeps coming up.  The onus is on people to realize 
that some indirect goal may benefit their pet project.  If they don't, 
no amount of direction-setting is going to make any difference.

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