Iron Man Fail + Xenoterracide is a whiny bitch

So, I have failed. I failed to post within the given window for the Iron Man challenge. There is a reason for this: I lost interest. And I generally lost interest in the Perl community for a few weeks. But, I only did because I had other interests and activities consume my time like archery, fletching, and starting my own business. That said, I felt it was important to let you, my dear readers, know that I didn't die and that I will continue to blog, but perhaps not to the frequency required for the Iron Man challenge.

Now on to other matters. Lately, a tiny subset of the Perl community is in an uproar over Xenoterracide's blog and for good reason. He is a whiny bitch. I find it laughable that Caleb feels entitled to our labor. The whole kerfuffle started when he bitched about rjbs' wonderful Dist::Zilla. His complaint was that it lacked documentation and felt that rjbs owed it to him or he shouldn't have released the software in the first place. In Caleb's world view, all released software should have documentation and that he shouldn't have to lift a finger for a project he finds useful. Then when people rationally explained that he ate too many paint chips as a kid and that isn't how the world works, he then decided to stick his fingers in his ears and start shouting "I'M NOT LISTENING LALALALA." Now he is hellbent on convincing people that his delusion is how the world actually is. So with all this back and forth, what has Caleb actually contributed? Nothing.

People, this is what we call a leech. Now here comes the philosophical rant.

I've been working with and developing Free Software for a number of years. I generally believe in the share and share-alike principle when it comes to Free Software. I release my code under GPL and GPL-compatible licenses because I feel the solutions are general enough that others may find them useful for their stated purpose. Others do the same. And in the end we build up a giant collection of useful software that we can all view, modify and redistribute our source modifications. In business, this makes sense. As an industry (software development that is), we've developed a set of tools to accomplish the most generic goals that we all have. This allows us to successfully focus on the needs of the business in developing our solutions and saves costs on redeveloping the wheel the next time we need an asynchronous event framework like POE. We are a community of peers. We participate in a commons toward shared goals. I stand on the shoulders of giants when I contribute, as do many others. It is a great system and it works really well. But, there are a few bad apples. The leeches.

Leeches drain resources from successful projects with their inanity because they do not contribute any useful labor back to the project they are using. These are the people that bitch and whine in IRC without putting forth the basic effort to understand the project and its purpose. These are the people that bitch and whine in their blogs, goading responses from the community at large-- a community of peers that feels the responsibility and honor that comes from being a constituent.

Caleb, it is really quite simple. We are not here to please you. Free and Open Source Software is a meritocracy. If you take and take and take, but give nothing back, guess what? You have no standing. We are not going to move mountains for you or spoon feed you bite sized chunks of understanding because you are too fuckin' lazy to read the source. If you do not demonstrate a willingness to be part of our community, then get the fuck out. We have better things to do than coddle leeches.