[Asterisk-bsd] so here is my question for the masses

[Frank Griffith]

Aristedes Maniatis <ari at ish.com.au> wrote:  
On 03/02/2008, at 9:42 AM, Richard Neese wrote:

> Do you all think that my daemonswitch project is worth the time. 
> will it get
> used or is it just a waste of time and effort ?
>
> I need input. I dont hear any feed back of anyone testing it. I need 
> to
> know ...


Open source projects are hard work. They often take many years of 
effort to achieve critical momentum and only then if the project 
actually solves a real need. Your project may well solve a problem for 
some people, but if I can suggest:

* there is no obvious place to download anything from your site
* many of the links don't go anywhere
* you explain what it isn't (bloated Linux distribution) but don't 
explain what it is
* you don't give people any reason to download it (is it easier than 
"portinstall asterisk"?, what do you package that is really nice and 
of benefit to people?)
* Most people who want to download an integrated OS/Asterisk package 
would not be Unix gurus and therefore want something widely supported: 
why would they not choose Linux?

If you think this solves a problem for people, then keep at it. 
Eventually it will be noticed and used. But be very clear about what 
problem it solves. Finally, don't expect any help: open source rarely 
works like that. If you get some, then great. But your project needs 
to be viable without it. Look at the millions of abandoned projects on 
sourceforge: some were probably quite good. If it solves a project 
*for you* then keep at it.

Finally, you appear to often want feedback or kudos from this list. I 
don't know what you are working on to get that feedback; I mean you 
might have done a range of terrific things for Asterisk, but I don't 
think many people here know what they are, or why they should be 
interested in your knee injury. I mean, we all hope you get better, 
but perhaps you could be more specific about the implications for the 
FreeBSD Asterisk community with what you are working on.


Ari Maniatis



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  Ari has some valid points here. I too faced these kinds of issues when I developed software...and I guess that might be why I no longer develop software. I could spend 100 hours on something only to find the users totally indifferent to the new enhancements or worse, asking for more changes and critizing my work to the bosses.
   
  Still, we should all remember that lots of people told the Wright Brothers they would never succeed in their line of work either.
   
  As for my feedback, Asterisk is a very powerful and cool piece of software. I've tried to sell the idea to my co-workers but they are all too busy earning a living to want to switch from the present phone system. Even if I could squeeze the $1,000 or so to build a server with a Digium card, we'd still have to buy new IP phones for everyone and they just don't see the benefit in that. It brings to mind a few years back when at their suggestion, I built us a HylaFax server only to find that each day everyone was still printing pieces of paper and manually faxing on the old fax machine.
   
  You can lead a horse to the water...but if he's not thirsty he won't drink.

       
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