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[ide-dev] Are feature requests contributions?

This list hasn't seen much activity since it opened, so I'll add a deliberately provocative comment.

And, actually, it is not an original idea. I ran across the following statement in the "README" file when I went to recompile "liferea feed reader". I found it so interesting, I'll quote the whole section in full:
<quote>
4.1. No Feature Requests!
-------------------------

First: *Feature requests are [not] contributions*. A lot of users think so and
don't see at all why this should not be the case. While there might be a
bit of interest on what new features the users would like to have, feature
requests tend to take up *a lot* of the time spent on support. Short of  
ignoring feature requests the only polite way to answer them is an elaborate
explanation of the reason why the developers have decided not to implement
this feature requests and that they already have thought about it. So feature
requests are a constant justification exercise invented to punish developers.
Please be kind and do not participate in this.
</quote>

Naturally, I don't share exactly the same view, but I can see their point, and think it's bold for them to state it so strongly. They went on, in the next section, to describe how to make contributions for bug fixes or new features.

So, I think the question for this list, is how do we avoid having an "IDE workgroup" become a big "feature-request-wish-list workgroup" that merely causes more work for existing committers ... more work just to read and triage and justify ... rather than encourage community participation in providing bug fixes and providing implementations of new features?

I have no answers, per se ... I just thought it an important question.


 

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