Re: 2.3.43, and a variety of problems.

[Ryan Steele <ryans@aweber.com>]

Brandon Hume wrote:
> On Fri, 2009-09-18 at 07:33 -0400, Francis Swasey wrote:
>> This is getting ridiculous from my perspective.  We've had a rash of people reporting problems 
>> against older releases and being effectively told to go to hell (which is what we hear when the 
>> development team or some proxy for them tells us to upgrade to 2.4).
> 
> "The fix is in 2.4 but can't be backported" is certainly a valid answer,
> and one I can live with.  I'm not married to 2.3, and I think syncrepl
> is the best thing since copulation.

Agreed - syncrepl is fantastic.

> However, part of the reason I'm so slow moving to 2.4 is because I'm
> pretty much the only person here running this large LDAP directory.  And
> part of the reason I'm the only person running the show, in addition to
> my other tasks, is because my coworkers and technical friends look at
> the openldap-software mailing list and say "I don't want to deal with
> those people".  (Some of these people have worked with Theo de Raat...)

It is unfortunate that such reports are not isolated amongst a few individuals.

> I realize that users ask stupid questions and run ancient versions, but
> I also realize that sometimes those users are experiencing a catastrophe
> and have eighty thousand users banging on the door demanding explanation
> (ie: me).  In that kind of situation people miss parts as they review
> docs and conflate symptoms and frequently make things worse before they
> make it better... and, yes, ask stupid questions.
> 
> Part of the reason I'm slow moving to 2.4 is because I actually had to
> work myself up to asking my syncrepl-client question.  I braced myself
> for one-word answers, "RTFM"-type answers, and variations on "why in the
> world are you doing something like that?"  I got lucky, my question was
> apparently worthwhile, and I got useful information along with tangible
> relief.  But what does that say about the environment?

Regrettably, this has become the accepted nature of the list and IRC channel.  You either say nothing, accept it, and
hope to get some useful morsels peppered in between the chastising, or you complain about it and risk alienation by
those in the know.  I have been more vocal than most on the topic (although, more in IRC than the mailing lists), and
it's certainly reflected in some of the answers I've received in my recent mailing list postings.

I'm not saying that anybody is "deserving of a response" because clearly the list is volunteer-only, but in my case
(http://www.mail-archive.com/openldap-software@openldap.org/msg15769.html) a request for clarification of a technical
statement got twisted in to an accusation claiming I'd misrepresented another individual's response, instead of an
answer to an earnest question - a side effect of being vocal about the tone you describe.  But, things aren't likely to
change unless more people are willing to sacrifice help in return for questioning the aforementioned resentful nature.

> When I come across technical posts, when someone decides to share their
> knowledge, it's a delight.  But there's never any doubt when some of
> those people think you're wasting their time.
> 
> I can handle being told that my version is too old and is unsupported.
> I just wish we could scale back a bit on the contempt while being told.

Yes, it's less than an uncommon request...

Respectfully,
Ryan