Matthew GarrettDemocratising software development inherently means that people are going to develop software in ways you don't like and which seem objectively wrong and welp that's also the argument people made against Linux so, it;s impossible to say if its bad or not
All I'm actually saying here is that (waves broadly) a lot more people who have never opened a PR or maintained a project being in a position to either open a PR or maintaining a project is going to result in them not behaving within the social norms we've developed as a group that is, to be fair, far less insular than in the 90s but is still somewhat insular compared to society as a whole and yes we are going to have to get used to the equivalent of HTML mail and top posting
Koen Hufkens, PhD@mjg59 Baseless inflation of skill is not democratization. In the past people would lurk in forums, or track projects from the sideline, until they were comfortable with some aspects of it - and showed this process. Then they would step in. Now anyone with 5min with Claude thinks that a contribution is valid.
@koen_hufkens That does not match my experience of helping maintain a Linux distribution for the past 25 years in the slightest
@koen_hufkens WebTV granted more people access to Usenet, Usenet norms changed. Ubuntu granted more people access to a functioning Linux desktop, support norms changed. This keeps happening. Every time it happens, people complain about the status quo being disrupted. This kind of disruption is the historical norm.
@mjg59 In all those instances there were strong gatekeepers (for better or worse) and little in ways of "flooding the zone". I argue that "this" is not that.
@koen_hufkens I, uh, were you there?
@mjg59 My first linux install used a stack of floppies if this is what you are asking (Slackware if I'm not mistaken).