[Discuss-gnuradio] RANT ALERT: WTF Is wrong with you people?

[Marcus D. Leech]

I've noticed a disquieting, nay, alarming, trend on this mailing list in
the last year or so.

Software Defined Radio has become "cool", it has become the "chic" thing
to do in graduate school, or
  as the foundation for the start up of a new business.  Everybody wants
to do it.

People get on to this list, empty vessels that they are, and determine
that they can become "filled up".

Now, when I say "empty vessel", I'm talking about the poly-dimensionally
clueless here.  One would expect,
  given the "newness" of SDR, that the preponderance of persons on this
mailing list would be relatively
  experienced persons in a related engineering discipline--software,
embedded systems, real-time programming,
  and of course *radio*.  It would be reasonable to expect a list like
this to offer support to experienced folks
  who are mostly self-starters, become familiar with Gnu Radio and SDR,
to get a few tips here and there
  about things specifically related to Gnu Radio, publish bugs and
"oddnesses", etc.

But what has happened is that large numbers of people without *any*
experience in *any* of the related
  disciplines come here, expecting a "free" substitute for a 4-year
engineering degree (or equivalent).
  They pin the success/failure of their project (assigned by their
academic advisor, or their manager
  in commercial situations) on the ability of this list to provide what
amounts to free consulting and training.

The people on this list who are providing assistance are doing so *as
volunteers*.  They don't owe anybody
  anything here.  It's a community effort, and the abuse of the
good-will of this community is harmful to
  the community as a whole.   I'm not targetting anybody in particular. 
You know who you are.  Knock it off.


Now, does anybody know where the power switch on my computer is?    :-)



-- 
Marcus Leech
Principal Investigator
Shirleys Bay Radio Astronomy Consortium
http://www.sbrac.org