[mythtv-users] More feature requests

[J. Donavan Stanley]

Scott Rowe wrote:

>>    
>>
>
><rant>
>
>Actually, feature requests help spur innovation.. If someone comes up with a
>cool new feature that someone with the skills to implement really likes, it
>helps both of them. Unless you make the assumption that the developers have
>thought of everything and will never come across an idea that they might
>like but didn't think of themselves. 
>
>Gee, arrogant much?
>  
>

*sigh* the novel unique, *visionary* ideas are RARE.  Spouting off a 
list of "I wants" or "wouldn't it be cool ifs" is not quite what one 
would call a contribution.


>Development isn't the be-all and end-all of sucessful product development.
>You need visionaries, dev leads, developers, config folks, testers, release
>/ build people, product managers, technical writers, marketers or
>evangelists, user acceptance testing, etc. While there may not be people
>exclusively devoted to each of these roles right now, someone is performing
>them (Isaac, Jarrod, Axel, et al, remove all those hats and take a bow.)
>  
>

That's right, that's why I suggested ways to actually contribute instead 
of making feature requests.  But hey, it's a lot easier to "contribute" 
by list of your visionary ideas than it is to spend all day trying to 
come up with the exact steps needed to reproduce a bug or writing up 
documentation isn't it?


>As a developer, how would you like Hauppauge sending you the newest, coolest
>toy to play with, all the documentation, SDKs, and resources you could ask
>for? Which would look better on a resume, 'developed widgetX for unknown OSS
>project' or 'Courted by major hardware vendor to lead a team of developers
>integrating cutting edge technology into an OSS app that everyone loves.' So
>who knows, you might even get a job out of it. One doing something you love.
>  
>
While I wouldn't mind the toys, I don't list any OSS work on my resume 
and it only gets casually mentioned in interviews.  Working OSS projects 
is a big negative to lots of potential employers if you're an engineer.  
But then again, it'd be Isaac getting the toys not me since I'm just a 
bit player.

>So where is mythTV in that process? I'd say close to the end of that list of
>steps. We've seen the flood of newbies who are encouraged by the HOWTOs and
>such, there are at least three companies commercializing myth, and
>developers are being called by hardware manufacturers to demo myth. Not that
>the 'end' means anything- it's an iterative cycle feeding on positive
>feedback.
>  
>
There's also lots of companies that are or soon will be selling MythTV 
based products.  They are the ones that'll take these feature requests 
as market research and do something about them.  But spouting off a list 
of feature requests, calling it contributing and then complaining when 
none the developers (who are working for free and get nothing in return 
for more users except more feature requests) don't jump right on it is 
just silly.