I didn’t make a posting yesterday because if I had, I would have burst out ranting and raving but even after a day’s delay (is that equivalent to counting to a hundred? <g>) I still am sizzling and can’t contain the onset of a major rant.
I was involved with LiteStep for a very long time because I believed in the project and believed that I was doing something worthwhile and contributing to a cause that helped people. But the longer I was there, the more I began to see that it was becoming a forum for people to show off and to bicker. I moved on to a different project – DarkStep – and dropped that too since I didn’t have the time for it. But recently I have been somewhat drawn back to the happenings in the LiteStep community because of a controversy surrounding WareWolf selling a compilation CD of LiteStep themes, modules etc. People who did themes and distributed it for free are suddenly saying “You should not profit from my work …”. Now I can understand that attitude perfectly if somebody was doing that just for profit. But when somebody is out of work and is just trying to make some money to support their family, *I* would think that people would put all of these petty concerns aside but I guess it is not to be so.
People who uploaded themes for others to use for free are suddenly saying, no you can’t use my theme to make a little money – if somebody could make money selling these CD’s in the first place … which I think isn’t going to work in the bulk that it would have to if WareWolf is to make tons and tons of cash as the whiners seem to think. These people say, that they should get some share of the profit for their work. So should I start asking people for royalties each time they use LiteStep on their machines because I put about a year of work into LiteStep? It is at times like these that I really feel like abandoning work on free software completely and either code for myself and not distribute any of my work or start charging for it (not that I will because I know there are still a lot of good people out there – both in LiteStep and just generally …).
I can’t say that I’m feeling very good about people in general at the moment or about the LiteStep “community”. It is so easy for people to make suggestions and talk about alternatives without doing anything to help somebody. I would like to see any of the people doing all the talking taking some action. Ah well … as usual, why do I even bother? The world is going to the selfish, mindless and the childish … God have mercy on the future …