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Comment by peter_l_downs | Hacker News Reader

Extremely anodyne — given that the author has maintained FreeDOS for longer than I've been alive, I was hoping for slightly more interesting ideas than "have a website and be nice to people." Not that I disagree with his advice!

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“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Nostalgia. Many FOSS projects feed on collective or obsessive nostalgia. I should know having contributed to some and following many. DOS is also sister project to retro gaming, a deep well for those fuzzy feelings.

That said, Hall does offer good and sensible advice to keep the community together and civil.

It is astounding just how much gets done via nostalgia, especially in the gaming space. Just look at the emulation scene to see the best of this.

I think it is better to summarize the article with: open and positive communication is at the core of collaborative open source software. While the message may seem trite, it is also a message that many open source developers need to hear.

Great ideas are often simple, the main problem is that people consider them too simple, neglect them and then fail.

You'd be surprised how many widely used open source projects still fail one or both of those conditions.

> I was hoping for slightly more interesting ideas

Sometimes there's a lot of value in reiterating core concepts.

Maybe doubly so if they're validated by his long experience in the OSS world.

Sure, but building a community is not easy and it’s good to reinforce that there are no shortcuts.

I think I would pretty a suspicious of a blog akin to “Linus Torvlads wants this website banned - build an enthusiastic and productive OSS community in just one week with this one neat trick.”

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