David Eaves gave a great speech at the DjangoCon: The Science of Community Management: DjangoCon Keynote
It raises many important points that you should be aware of when you are or are planning to get involved with a OSS project. All those have communities and if you don’t keep an eye on staying the lone rider committer, you’ll eventually get tangled up in the social net – the community.
This can be a painful experience, especially when you’re a coder. We, as a species, are wary of human interaction and social forces when we maybe should be aware instead. One symptom is that people start to bother you with stupid questions. The natural reaction is to troll. This works (people will leave you along) but it also means spending from your reputation budget.
Realizing that “stupid question == someone cares about my work” can turn this into a win-win situation.
Go see the talk.
Dark Views 