The Pulse: Community Catch Up | 2WC 17 Apr

[gin]

I am trying very hard to respond sincerely in this case, but it is difficult when the posts in this thread more or less equate to "pollux bad" and "devs not working hard enough!!"

Again, I have to make everyone here aware that the dev team are volunteers, and you are always free to start your own gmod community

1) It is absolutely correct that the dev team are volunteers. Hence, it would indeed be improper to expect them to commit to it full-time. However, I think when people bring up the "staff are volunteers!" argument they forget one detail: Nobody forced them to volunteer. If you do volunteer, then you kind of do have a responsibility to provide the services of that role you volunteered for.

This is like volunteering at, say, a chess club, doing absolutely nothing in said club and complaining that you are but a volunteer when people point your inactivity out. If you don't have the time to commit to whatever project you volunteered for, simply don't volunteer. Or resign.

2) If the sole argument you can bring to keep people is "Oh well? Then start your own community" then that means FL already is dead. To use the chess analogy above - I wouldn't expect a chess team who starts telling its members they are "free to start a new one" upon complaints to last much longer.

I respect the work devs and staff in general put into this, mind you. I simply don't like how people point out the benefits of volunteerism (AKA not treating it as seriously as a full-time job) but not the responsibilities thereof. And to address the thread itself - I'm sure developers put their hearts and a lot of effort into this update, but I hope they also realise this is rather demoralising to the same community that has been awaiting proper, actual progress for 6 months.

Absolutely, we understand that the development team are volunteers and we appreciate their efforts. However, we also agree that volunteers have a responsibility to fulfill the duties of their role, and if they can't commit the time required, they should either step up or step down.

Furthermore, we do acknowledge that community members have been waiting for a long time for actual progress, and we think it's fair for them to express their concerns. That being said, we encourage anyone who has the skills and passion to join the team and help with the development process.

Jokes aside, I appreciate the nuanced take.