Matt R wrote:
--- Tim Starling wrote:
Unfortunately it seems most programmers on
Wikipedia would rather think
of excuses, complain about the lack of progress and file bug reports.
There's an unfortunate tendency on Wikipedia to suppose that if you identify a
problem that you can fix, then you have an obligation to fix it. Even if you
have the capability, there is no moral imperative for volunteers to do anything
at all on Wikipedia, and documenting a problem is already a positive
contribution, albeit a comparatively minor one. Of course, to grumble or whine
about a problem that you've identified is churlish, as you have no right to
expect that others fix things on your behalf.
But to get to the point: I'm very grateful to the developers. I would quite
like to hack on Mediawiki myself some day, but right now I prefer to spend my
time contributing to the content of articles -- this is not an *excuse*; this
is a choice, and I (only mildly!) resent any such implication.
I'm sorry if I caused offence, I just wanted to impress on everyone that
Wikipedia has barely any developers. If you're ever wondering why some
feature hasn't been written yet, it's because there's been no-one around
to write it. Most of the active developers seem to be more interested
writing features for a general audience than for Wikimedia projects.
There's more editors on the Old English Wikipedia than there are
developers overall. Maybe Matt doesn't want to help, and that's fine. I
get the feeling Gerrit doesn't either. But is there anyone? Every second
Wikipedian seems to know a programming language. We just need, say, two
or three developers willing to put in a few hours per week.
-- Tim Starling