[Qgis-developer] [OT] - politically correct question

[Richard Duivenvoorde]

On 16-10-13 12:29, Ing. Pierluigi De Rosa wrote:
> Dear all,
> 
> Since QGIS was at 1.8 version I used a plugin very useful for me but now
> the same is to updated to the 2.0 version.
> I write to the developer asking for un update for version 2.0 and
> telling him I'm are available to the the necessary work to do that.
> Unfortunately I didn’t receive any reply from him.
> 
> What you suggest to do?
> I can update the code but then I cannot distribuite the code as I'm not
> the developer?

My opinion:

I do not know which plugin you need, but I would be very carefull to
pull somebodies plugin out of his/her hands.

I think it is to the developer to decide what priorities he takes by
doing his work. We cannot force somebody to update it, if he is busy
with something else. (or just missing the email in which somebody asks
for that)

If the plugin is on github, I would start with forking the repo, and
upgrading the plugin as needed and do a pull request.
This way YOU have a working plugin :-)

Then maybe ask via this list if the developer is around, or if somebody
knows this developer personally, and try to contact him again (or via
the person who knows him).

Maybe offer a little gift? Some nice words? A beer somewhere on the
world? Offer to do it (patches, pull requests)?

If all fails, there are two options:
- we can my you manager of the plugin (but as said, as a project I think
we should be really carefull with this. Maybe even only if the
plugin-owner has given permission for this)
- you can rename the plugin and upload it with another name?

>From my own experience, I can tell several reasons to not upgrade
immediatly:
- I'm in the middle of some refactoring and are planning to do the
upgrade and new functionality in one version
- I just do not have time for this, at THIS moment (meaning: other
things in life have prio now)...

In short: please be gentle to a plugin dev. He invested his free time
into the developing the initial version(s) of the plugin.

Regards,

Richard Duivenvoorde