[MPlayer-users] Attitude Anyone?

[jasonrc at gomdoli.com]

On Fri, 14 Jun 2002, Daniil V. Kolpakov wrote:
> [Automatic answer: RTFM (read DOCS, FAQ), also read DOCS/bugreports.html]
> ??? ??? ????? - 13 ???? 2002 19:15, ? Arpi ?????:
> > the main fact: we don't need newbies.
> 
> A little bit rude, but shows point right...
>
A little short sighted. Mplayer, like most apps, has dependencies on
various libraries and, in the broad sense, linux/freeBDS. While a newbie
cannot be expected to directly impact mplayer development, their
presence in the linux community will foster growth of all of linux,
including aspects mplayer depends on. The more users that migrate from
windows to linux, the more robust linux will become, and ultimately,
this will impact mplayer too. Now granted, some apps have no impact on
newbies for quite some time (emacs and vi for one), but playing video is
something that the newbie does want/need. Mplayer is one of, if not the
best media player out there, thus it can potentially draw people from
windows to linux, ultimately helping mplayer. However, if a newbie's
first experience is very negative from the linux community (e.i. getting
flamed on mplayer-users) then they may opt to abandon linux altogether.
A lack of general public interest in linux will lead to less open
codecs/library development, ultimately hurting mplayer.

I'm not trying to say "we need to do everything in our power to help the
newbie", but I do think its short sighted to say we need them not at
all, and I do think that blowing them off, telling them they are not
wanted here, is A: pointless, and B: kind of shitty thing to do.

jason