I Am Your User, Why Do You Hate Me?
summary
Argues that open source projects repel users through poor docs, hostile tone and arcane tools, then shows concrete evidence and fixes: a linguistic study finds 2% vs 98% rates of “thank you” on different kernel contributors, Slack UX patterns help onboard people but replace archival IRC logs, and mentorship programs like Google Summer of Code plus project onboarding (Drupal Dojo) turn a discouraged newcomer into a core contributor — Slack vs IRC and irccloud vs Mattermost tradeoffs and a maintainer burnout story show what actually works and what breaks.
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chapters (15)
- 0:00Introduction and context
- 3:31Defining the user
- 7:51Common negative behaviors
- 11:39Handling feedback
- 14:50Addressing technical labels
- 17:39Humanizing the user
- 20:37Culture of communication
- 24:45Setting boundaries
- 28:13The role of documentation
- 31:14Communication platforms
- 37:01Learning curves
- 40:27The kickass curve
- 44:08Lessons from experience
- 48:18Final reflections
- 49:08Q&A session
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