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Providing useful feedback

“By the same token, release early, release often is a good
mechanism for other projects even when they don’t involve
code. When working on documentation, marketing materials, artwork,
translations, or other non-code materials, it’s a good idea
to put something out for comment early. This is not how it’s
usually done, and can be a bit painful for people used to working
on and submitting a finished or nearly finished product before
getting feedback.

“Why painful? Because, all too often, soliciting feedback
results in as much noise as signal. In addition to thoughtful
feedback, contributors often receive snippy comments, off-topic
responses, or other non-useful feedback.

“Overall, I’ve found many in the open source community to
be respectful and good at providing feedback. But it’s the
abrasive and negative voices that often stand out and discourage
people from being effective contributors — particularly
people new to FOSS who aren’t used to working in the open
environment. What can be done about this?”


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