[Gardeners] CL Gardeners: good news, bad news, how to win big

[Peter Seibel]

On Feb 22, 2006, at 12:39 PM, Peter Seibel wrote:

>
> On Feb 22, 2006, at 12:19 PM, Paolo Amoroso wrote:
>
>> I realize that my frankness may sound harsh.  I am aware that
>> volunteer labor is a gift, and that Real Life takes its toll.  But I
>> would like to understand why the CLD has received so little help, and
>> whether this may have any implications for current and future
>> gardeners projects.
>
>> Ideas and discussions are no longer enough.  Lisp needs labor, not
>> praise.
>
> I agree with this last sentiment and appreciate Paolo's frankness.
> I'm also interested in what we can do to enable more people to
> contribute to tending the Common Lisp garden.

I should also point out that there's a flip side to this, which is if  
there's a project that you're championing (or even just interested  
in) that nobody else is contributing to, it's worth a few polite  
queries to the list asking if there are folks who might be interested  
but are put off for one reason or another. Maybe there's something  
about the way the project is defined or structured or whatever that  
makes people less interested than they might otherwise be. If even  
these queries go unanswered then you'll probably have to reconcile  
yourself to doing more work on your own to get the project to a point  
where it attracts other contributors or giving up on the project.

-Peter

-- 
Peter Seibel           * peter at gigamonkeys.com
Gigamonkeys Consulting * http://www.gigamonkeys.com/
Practical Common Lisp  * http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/