Andy, there are some good responses here already, but I'd like to add my two cents as well.
First off - I am not an open source zealot. There are folks who would rather die then use commercial software, even if it saves then hundreds of hours of development time. I think that is plain stupid. That being said - open source is a wonderful way to distribute the work load of a project. I know my projects get a _lot_ of help from the community and gain a lot of strength from the constant bug fixes and updates people share. Maybe I'm alone - but most of the business I have now stems from the fact that I give away applications and blog daily (except today ;). So giving away code for free has certainly not hindered my earning potential. About the contests.... I don't really think they are even in the same league. The contests I ran were to talk about how programmers solve problems. I've been coding ColdFusion for 200 years or so (give or take a few years) and I find that I can still learn from the guy who picked it up last week. I wasn't asking folks to code for free. I was asking folks to build something small, share it, and let me (and my readers) critique it so we can all learn. It's about learning - not commerce. On 2/9/07, Andy Matthews <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I understand that...but THOSE contests are bad practices as well. > > If you WANT to work for free then by all means you should do so. If you > believe in supporting the Fusebox group and their excellent codebase then > you should ALSO do so. But putting out a contest, asking people to work for > free is a bad idea, and not something that the community should support. > > Here's a list of articles discussing spec work and it's effects on the > design community. Bear in mind that this ALSO affects the programming > community. It basically devalues your work product. If you're willing to > work "for free" this time, then why should you be charging me $65 per hour > the next time. > -- =========================================================================== Raymond Camden Email : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Blog : ray.camdenfamily.com AOL IM : cfjedimaster Video game player? Have kids? Check out KidGamers.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Upgrade to Adobe ColdFusion MX7 Experience Flex 2 & MX7 integration & create powerful cross-platform RIAs http:http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;56760587;14748456;a?http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=LVNU Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:269338 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
