participation & contribution [was: Latest changes with lisp/uni-*.el and leim/quail]

[Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>]

> 1. A user that provides feedback/bug reports is valuable, even if he
>    doesn't submit patches.
>
> 2. A user that also submit patches is even more valuable, even if he
>    doesn't commit them.
>
> 3. A user that also commit his patches is even (a little) more valuable.
> 
> Currently I'm at level 2.  It's better than nothing, isn't it?

+1, for drawing attention to the worth of #1 and #2.

But these are not *levels*.  And the "more" and "even (a little) more"
are inappropriate here.  All sincere effort can be helpful.

It makes no sense to quantify either the effort spent or the resulting
improvement, especially based only on the type of activity.

Spending 1/2 hour providing feedback + 1/2 hour committing code is
not necessarily more helpful than spending 1 hour providing feedback
(or 1 hour committing code).  All time spent is welcome.

And the result of the time spent, however long, likewise does not fit
into any useful value hierarchy.

Sometimes just posing a question can be worth an awful lot.  And good
feedback can sometimes prevent a lot of needless coding or committing.  Likewise, providing Emacs development snapshots that people can test
with - that's a great benefit that you provide, IMO.

You have N hours to spend.  You choose how to spend that time.  No
one should be trying to tell you how to spend your time, or thinking
that what they do with their time is more important than what you
choose to do with yours.

There are thousands of bugs reported, many (most) with good, careful
reports that lie dormant and die neglected.  Some people spend lots
of their volunteer time fixing Emacs bugs.  Others prefer to develop
new features and not fix bugs.  So what?  That's life.  It is not
constructive to berate volunteers for not doing this or that.

Don't let such bullying get you down, Dani.  I, for one, am very
appreciative of what you do.