I see lots of request go by on the forum from people who say, basically:
I got this (old) router for US$12 from a friend/yard sale/junk bin. I don't see it listed as supported. Could someone help me get LEDE running on it?
The requester may not realize it, but it feels to me as if they're saying:
I wasted twelve bucks, but maybe someone on the list would be willing to spend one or 25 hours to help me get some value from this device.
Even though I'm not a developer (and have no desire to become one - I was one in another life), these requests feel a bit offensive to me. This is especially true when so many people are focusing their effort toward pushing out a stable release of LEDE that's going to benefit everyone.
So I put it to the list:
Are these kinds of requests welcomed? Discouraged?
Is there any consensus about how to respond to these requests?
I have seen one developer who (sort of) makes a standing offer, "Send me a router and I'll take my best effort." Is that a reasonable response?
I don't particularly care one way or the other about the answers to this question, but I'm curious to what the group (the people who would do the work) thinks. Thanks.
I wasted twelve bucks, but maybe someone on the list would be willing to spend one or 25 hours to help me get some value from this device.
Yeah, wait till you work in techsupport and see how everyone in a few miles radius comes to you to get their faulty devices resurrected by your divine grace or something. Lol that's normal.
I have seen one developer who (sort of) makes a standing offer, "Send me a router and I'll take my best effort." Is that a reasonable response?
That's what DD-WRT guys do usually so this practice is well-known.
But DD-WRT guys have signed NDAs to use closed blobs and their firmware is a total mess with a decent webui hiding it (seriously, their webui fails to change VLANs, and it's known since like forever), so I'd say they have a far easier job at supporting new hardware.
I'd say it depends from the device and from the developer, imho we only need to make sure that no people disguises as a developer to get a free router from a naive user.
So either add a forum rule that says you can't make these offers this unless you are a recognized contributor (mods/admins discretion), or a forum rule that simply bans the practice (in the sense that it is forbidden to make or answer these offers on this forum).
No need to regulate this IMHO. If a developer jumps on that train and is interested in developing support for a certain device, fine. If not... then not.
I see lots of request go by on the forum from people who say, basically:
I got this (old) router for US$12 from a friend/yard sale/junk bin. I don't see it listed as supported. Could someone help me get LEDE running on it?
The requester may not realize it, but it feels to me as if they're saying:
I wasted twelve bucks, but maybe someone on the list would be willing to spend one or 25 hours to help me get some value from this device.
Even though I'm not a developer (and have no desire to become one - I was one in another life), these requests feel a bit offensive to me. This is especially true when so many people are focusing their effort toward pushing out a stable release of LEDE that's going to benefit everyone.
If you discourage these questions, you also discourage the "I just got this new
router" version.
There's also the issue that getting things running can bedone one of several
ways
someone helps the requester get it running (the requester is now a developer)
the requester sends a router to someone and they get it running
the requester is able to get a serial console, flash and test the device
the requester is unable/unwilling to provide any assistance and just wants to
get something frunning.
the first three have value to the project.
How do you discourage #4 without discouraging the others?
[quote="tmomas, post:3, topic:674, full:true"]No need to regulate this IMHO. If a developer jumps on that train and is interested in devloping support for a certain device, fine. If not... then not.
[/quote]I was only concerned about malicious people abusing this practice to get a free router.
Mostly because of the bad PR that it would give to the forum/project, of course.
