Recently in the last few days news has come to the light about how an OpenCart developer handled reporting of an issue. Heres a link for a list of everything that was said.
At the time of this writing neither Github or Mozilla have made a public statement.
However it does appear that Github has updated their community contributing guide.
Now I've done quite a lot of reading based upon who this developer is and seen just how they had handled themselves in similar situations. And to summarize it, it comes down to high ego and belief in ones abilities and knowledge past what they are.
This isn't about slandering anybody per say. This is just how I started thinking about it.
So for me atleast when working on any form of project with others it's important to understand that you are never forced at gunpoint to do so (unless of course you really do have a gun at your head). So with that in mind why treat others awful? They are there to help get the project to the end goal.
If you say you're going to do something do it, especially when its important. If you forget fine. People muck up. But you need to atleast be able to admit you mucked up when it comes up.
Now I'm personally a student member as of this writing of IITP. IITP being a governing body of IT in New Zealand. They have a code of conduct / ethics that all members must abide by. With repercussions if somebody violates it in any serious capacity. Here it is link.
I as an IT professional I know and understand that I will muck up, I won't perform my best at times. The mistake itself isn't as bad as not dealing with it. I can accept others making mistakes and happy to help them learn and fix things. But if you're not willing to admit your mistakes, learn and fix them. How can I consider you a professional? I cannot.
As a person I believe in treating others very well at all points in time. Until they hurt me badly. Not everyone agrees with this. And act upon instinct. Just treating people with respect, helping them when they need it and showing compassion when they are having a hard time is just basic things. That we as Human beings should just do. Its not even a professionalism issue this. But the amount of treatment like this out there is ridiculous.
As a developer my creed is to learn, develop and help others. They all achieve the same thing. Making the world a better place. By learning you can develop more. By developing you have experience to help others. By helping others you are transmitting your knowledge and experience for them to learn from. All in all it results in people being more intelligent and able to do better things.
Part of teaching others and sharing experience is open source projects. They also have other benefits of allowing others to use your code and not having to develop it themselves. But the beauty of it, its not just one-way open source projects means that everyone associated with it learn as its developed.
But this means you need to be able to accept you may be wrong about things and explain to others when they are wrong.
Working with others is a big deal. Its one of the most common attributes if not most employers are looking for. Based on what I've heard its the number one quality employers in New Zealand are looking for. Using and contributing to open source projects is a great way to display this.
But just working with isn't enough having your own is also important and it shows the ability to manage others to create a working piece of software, even when it goes bad.
I really don't want to promote any language, community or even technology in this article. Nor slander or make any sound bad.
Because at the end of the day, people can change. If they are willing at least.
No comments:
Post a Comment