I might be missing the basic understanding of how things go here and may be somebody can explain and comfort me a bit. I have been uploading patches for some time now, in a desire that others can benifit from them, but it seems that they have been ignored or rejected, I don't know exactly.
The only thing I have clear is that i submit them and then some weeks or a month later a new update of a module comes out and to my disappointment I had to discover that I have to apply all my patches again, because they have not been included. Some of these are just small bugs that have to do with translation or things that are obsolete. Some are plain bugs. I don't use CVS, because I don't have access and it is all too complicated for me. But I do use the standard Linux diff -u to produce the patches.
It can be really frustrating to have contributed and then afterwards to feel punished as a result. That is not my idea of community. In real life I always have felt encouraged to continue participating, even though in a limited way, when at least your proposals were heard, when there was just a small hint of interest in what you are doing. But this is plainly frustrating and it gives you the desire to just give up on it all.
What is wrong? Is it me? Is it just life?
Comments
It seems to all depend
It seems to all depend on the module developer. Some are very grateful for the help, others seem indifferent. It seems like you almost have to be a bit annoying in reminding them that you've got a patch that fixes a bug. That said, compared to some other open source projects I've worked with, Drupal developers are generally pretty responsive and open to contributions.
I hope you'll keep offering up the contributions. I know that I've often used patches that others have posted that the devs haven't gotten around to applying.
Not much experience
I don't have much experience with developers communities and what you commented encouraged me. Thank you.