[wplug] Am I a jerk?

Tom Rhodes trhodes at FreeBSD.org
Tue Aug 31 18:09:37 EDT 2004


On Tue, 31 Aug 2004 17:19:43 -0400 (EDT)
Beth Lynn <bethlynn at wplug.org> wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I am writing this letter in hopes of helping Don and other's like him.
> The sort answer for the impatient is "No, but you aren't alone"
> 
> For your reference, I answered a similar question on wplug-plan earlier
> this year http://www.wplug.org/pipermail/wplug-plan/2004-May/001097.html
> 

Ok, as a FreeBSD committer in src/ ports/ and doc/ I must admit
that I've personally found it a "Thankless job" which I continue
to do.  Why?  For one or any number of the following reasons:

o Once in awhile I do get a "thanks", a beer, an offer for dinner,
  etc.;

o I can add it to my resume;

o My ambitions have helped me to better understand the system
  that I love to spend time playing with;

o Sometimes a volunteer will offer to send me some free hardware.

Other reasons could include making new friends, becoming popular
amungst nerds, feeling of importance or whatever else but I'm
not really doing this for personal gain.  I'm doing it because I
was once a newbie reading documentation and getting triped up
by simple errors.  My goal is to help those who may need it,
people who have a slight difficulty comprehending some things and
may need a push.  That and to get my (evil?) design ideas out
into the public so that I may punish all human beings for ...

Ok, took my meds and I'm ok now.[1]

But one thing I have never forgot to do is either reply with
a "thanks!" when someone does me a favor or makes a modification
which I want to see; offer gratitude when someone donates a
little cash or a piece of hardware to me; send off a "your
welcome" note when someone sends me their thanks.

That and unlike the dozens of other users in the world who would
like to make a change, I'm making the change in place of sitting
around and bitching about the shortcomings!

Ok, I'm done now ...

-- 
Tom Rhodes

[1]: For the humor impaired, no, I'm not on any type of special
medication that, as people I converse with, you need to know
about.



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