On Sun, Aug 10, 2014 at 9:27 AM, svetlana svetlana@fastmail.com.au wrote:
I feel that having development carried out by "employees" hinders programming the same software as a hobby: for instance, they work in a single language, and don't need localised documentation
Good localized software is a commitment of the project/community/coders, irrespective of coder's employment statuses.
I have certainly worked on software which was localized *only because* a company paid people to do the localization. And, of course, I'm sure the converse occurs as well.
As a software engineer who enjoys his work, I'm rather put off by the idea that it is somehow wrong for me to make a living using my skills to further a cause I believe in. Are all employees of non-profits somehow polluting the non-profit's ideals?
I contributed code to mediawiki as a volunteer before I became an employee. I did not have any problems doing so. It is true that some "community" projects have trouble accepting contributions from non-employees, but this is not the case for WMF in my experience. But again, this is due to the values and commitment of the community/organization, not who is (or is not) being paid. --scott