Contributing To a Project With a Reclusive Maintainer? 162
zerointeger writes "I am still fairly new to programming in C, but I was asked to extend an open source authentication module by my employer. The project is complete, testing has been done and it works as designed. The extension/patch I have created is fairly robust, as it includes configuration options, help files, and several additional files. The problem is that I have been unable to make contact with the current maintainer about having this feature added. I think the only reason I'd like to see this included is to prevent any patching of later revisions. A few others I have spoken with agree that the patch would benefit administrators attempting to push Linux onto the desktop, as we have done at the University that employs me. Has anyone else submitted patches/extensions to what seems to be a black hole?"
Fork it! (Score:5, Funny)
It's open source, so fork it and become the maintainer of the new version. When yours becomes more popular you will be famous, get offered large consulting fees, be able to afford blackjack and hookers, etc.
This wasn't something to do with the ... (Score:5, Funny)
Holidays (Score:5, Funny)
If the maintainer is French, don't expect an answer untill september 1st,
Re:Fork it! - not funny (Score:5, Funny)
the project should be taken away from them
No need to be uncivilized about it. There should be a ceremony, with flags and banners and trumpets and horses. The bold new developer's name should be announced with accompanying fanfare, and he shall kneel in front of the wizened author (who should have put out his cigarette before these solemn rites). The sword edges should be dull, lest angry words from jealous unrecognized forkers be heard and needless violence ensue. I should stop now before this starts affecting my English henceforth
Re:open source = fail (Score:1, Funny)
I guess you won't be coming back to slashdot then since it's running on messed-up failing software...
Re:Welcome to the world of OSS (Score:4, Funny)
Yes and ... (Score:5, Funny)
and politicians who don't represent the will of the people after the election should be impeached, disbarred ... ... ... .... ...
and companies who sign a contract and then go broke should still pay and fullfill the contract
and orphans should never get cancer
and all programs should be open source
and I should get paid for this
and
sorry - just getting frustrations out
Re:Fork it! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Welcome to the world of OSS (Score:4, Funny)
What happens if SourceForge goes under?
You will hear about it here first. And by hear about it, I mean /. will disappear, since they are owned by the same company. Just to be safe, I think we all need to do a little:
wget -m -p www.sourceforge.org
and maybe add it to cron.daily, to be extra safe. ;)