Open Source - yes/no?

[Ordos]

I run Zulu Hotel Factions but don't have much time to do any development work.

Is there a good reason NOT to go open source that you guys know?

I think it will generate quite a bit of additional development for my shard.

What are the +/- of going open source?

Thanks.

[Austin]

Usually, no one will contribute when something goes open source, unless the person already wanted to contribute.
Human behavior comes into play... Time and time again the result I have seen is "That's it? That is all you're giving me?" and that person will ask for you to do more work for him/her.

Here are typical examples of the behavior seen by people who receive work done by another person:
http://forums.polserver.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3455
http://www.psychotic-arts.com/tsseforum ... 6&start=16

They perceive no value in it, since they never had to pay money, or put work into it themselves.

[*Edwards]

From another point of view.

Going open-source can provide other serious users more powerfull knowledge.

By that I mean that when I grab a new project, I'm interested on yes the systems but most definitely the structures of it, how this person built his systems, how it is organized, the functions of it... Generally it's always the same pattern, but to get new ideas is what I personnaly love the most and this absolutely help for the futur as there is always something to learn.

Going open-source helps beginners aswell. Distro097 is simply perfect but incomplete. I offered my help and provided POL with my project built on Distro097. Several used it in the past but no development were submitted over me. What Austin said is true. All of it.

Take in consideration that only few members actively participate to POL Server. And even if Austin looks disapointed in his last topics, he shall realize how successfull is POL now because of only few developers who gave time to this community. POL is worth to be more popular, but that means to give more time...

If you found something usefull with another open-souce. Go ahead, do it aswell.

Your old zulu scripts that you are at this very moment using at ZH Factions were open-source. Yeah? ...

The question is simple: why not sharing? This can only help others. But don't expect something back in return.

Austin has been lucky with me for Distro097. Even though, I'm not sure it's what he planned. Who knows, maybe you'll be lucky?

*Over the years, my english is getting better heh?*


Note: I voted against an idea of Austin when he proposed to start from scratch a complete new project: a POL Server. Since, I changed my mind. I've learned how difficult it is to build something alone. All together, working together, hand to hand... it would be best. But that means someone has to take the lead or it will never happen.

[Jay]

Usually, no one will contribute when something goes open source, unless the person already wanted to contribute.

Austin's right of course (is he ever wrong???) however, I think an additional aspect of this to consider is whether you are simply going open source, or if you're allowing contributor access to source control as well.

Going open source without granting rights in source control takes away most of the incentive to contribute. It does for me, anyway; I don't want to work on things without being able to put them into play, and I think most people feel something similar. When you put time into something, you want to see it shine.

In my opinion, open source without an open version control system is more likely to lead to forks of your project than anything else. If you can't trust people with contributing, then why bother giving them your code in the first place. Grant access to version control on a per-request basis, and then take away individual access if necessary (e.g., you don't like this person's code style; they're taking things in a direction you don't want to go; etc.) The whole point of version control systems is to make it easy to revert undesired changes.

[Yukiko]

Are you going open source in hopes of getting a lot of help from people? If so then you might be disappointed. Many shard developers are busy with their own shards and are doing their best just to keep up with fixing bugs and adding things to their existing shard scriptset. If, however, you can get new developers to adopt your scriptset then they will be using your scripts and will likely make additions to them but you'll find that most devs who create really cool and clever scripts or packages are not likely to want to share them. That's usually the case but not always. You will get bug fixes most likely though and that can be worth a lot.

[Ordos]

Thanks for your input guys.

I'm going to go ahead and do it, whether anyone contributes I'll have to find out!

[MuadDib]

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