TubePress is released under the GNU General Public License Version 3. Let’s start with a quote from the license (which, not conicidentally, can be found in every single source file of TubePress)
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
Doesn’t get much clearer than that. It means that the author will try his/her best to meet the needs of the user, but this contract comes with zero expectations on either the user’s or the developer’s end.
I’m passionate about open source software. At work we use dozens of programs in our production enterprise apps. Indeed, the Department of Defense has acknowledged the huge benefits of utilizing open source software throughout the military.
In addition, TubePress is one of the thousands of programs that is almost entirely developed by a single person in his/her spare time: me. Spare time is not something that I have a lot of - who does? But I devote as much as I possibly can to TubePress. Why? Because I love writing software. I love seeing people use the apps I write. It’s fun for me to help people debug their technical problems. I’m a software development from 7:30am to 5pm, then I get home and squeeze in another hour or two of development on personal projects.
With that said, let’s examine some amusing recent activity in the TubePress forums from a user with the pseodonym of “mikey1.” A guy that goes by Mikey? You know this is gonna be good.
First, our boy Mikey starts yesterday afternoon with a common bug that affects users of version 1.6.5:
Hi, I just started using Tube Press, and I really like it, I have just
one problem, my thumbnals show up, but whenever I click on one, it
always goes to the same first clip, is this a known problem. Also it
works in my 2.6 blog but not in my 2.5.1 blog, I get the following
error.
Call-time pass-by-reference has been deprecated - argument passed by
value; If you would like to pass it by reference, modify the
declaration of [runtime function name](). If you would like to enable
call-time pass-by-reference, you can set
allow_call_time_pass_reference to true in your INI file. However,
future versions may not support this any longer. in /var/www/vhosts/
greenroomuk.com/httpdocs/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/tubepress/
tubepress_main.php on line 22
Any help Appreciated. Mike.
Pretty usual post. And under other circumstances I’d have been happy to point him in the right direction. Had he spent 5 seconds searching for this error message he’d have found the solution that was posted weeks ago. We’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. The next message came a mere 10 hours later:
Its become obvious that no one answers the problems regarding tube
press on google groups, therefore, today I have deleted this plugin,
and will advise. any members on my different blogs, not to use it. The
developer seems unavailable and uninterested in the plugin, and it
doesn't work on 2.6 or 2.5.1
Ouch! I must’ve misplaced the “tube press” SLA that I signed with Mr. Mikey. Again, had he even bothered to search the 400+ messages in the discussion group, he’d have seen that I had personally and happily responded to the vast majority of them. I guess my regular commits over the past two years doesn’t meet Sgt. Mikey’s definition of “interested.”
But wait! It gets even better:
This is totally unnecessary, making people sign in to google groups
for no response, no help.
Plus the fact I'm too busy running my own sites to have my members
constantly complaining about plugins that developers obviously have no
interest in, and yes I know the standard answers, "If you don't like
it, don't use it".
It’s gonna be sad to see Capt. Mikey’s 3 users not use TubePress. But he’s obviously a very important, busy person, and who can blame him for not being able to wait a day or two for a response?
Anyone that knows me personally will agree that I’m a pacifist. Under no circumstances will I provoke a fight. But if you know me, you’ll also know that I have no tolerance for morons like Muttonhead Mikey who go through life bullying people around with criticism that is 1) completely non-constructive and 2) comes from someone who is in no position to offer criticism in the first place. Mikey reminds me of one those individuals that anyone who works in the tech industry knows; he has some vague understanding of technical concepts, probably has minimal education/training in the field, surrounds his/her self with sycophants, and finds it necessary to remind everyone of their intelligence and grandeur - hence the “too busy running my own sites” comment. Manly Mikey must be one hell of a system admin - he spent all day yesterday trying to track down a PHP problem that the most barely competent server administrator could fix in an instant. (Here’s a hint, Mikey, it’s called the “PHP error log”)
It’s important to stand up to these pompous pricks. Because if nobody ever confronts them, then they’ll go through the rest of their life acting like they’re hot shit at the expense of anyone who has to deal with them.
Good riddance, Mikey!
