return undefined;

I guess donating code isn’t enough anymore

Posted in Flex, flexmdi, pointless blather by Ben Clinkinbeard on the February 4th, 2008

The following is an unedited email thread I have had with a reader over the past week or so. I helped him learn how to add a SWC to a Flex project but apparently that (and FlexMDI) wasn’t good enough. The quotes next to the green bars are mine.

Update: I have decided to remove Keith’s identifying information from this post. While I haven’t received any kind of apology from him, as one commenter pointed out some employers could deem his behavior enough to warrant termination from a job or perhaps prevent the acquisition of a future job. Nothing of that magnitude was what I intended by publishing this. I was simply trying to point out two things. One, don’t be ungrateful, especially when getting something at no cost. Two, just because you’re communicating “on the internet” doesn’t mean its OK to be a jerk, and your actions may very well become public knowledge. I think this post still accomplishes its goals without his info. So you’re welcome Keith, again.

Hey Ben,

Thanks again for all the help in getting the demos to work. As I mentioned in my last post the only problem I am having now is trying to get the maximize and minimize events to work. When I add one of them to a I get “Event type ‘mdi.events:MDIWindowEvent’ is unavailable”

Any ideas??

Thanks,

Keith

Not sure what you mean exactly, can you show some code?

sure
… code snippet …

When I compile that I get “Event type ‘mdi.events:MDIWindowEvent’ is
unavailable” on the MDIWindow code. If I remove
the “maximize” event parameter it compiles and runs fine.

Sorry, I dunno. Maybe try importing MDIWindowEvent?

Ben

Sadly it already is. I just took the sample code and added the maximize parameter.

So its just the explorer with one attribute added?

Any idea ?

Sorry, I don’t really have time to investigate right now. I would suggest posting your issue on flexcoders.

Ben

Lol. Ok. I didn’t realize they would comment on 3rd party code. I apologize — I thought you were one of the developers of this component.

No problem, I am, I just have a lot going on right now. Sorry.

You knoiw what never mind. Pisses me off to no end when a developer won’t take the time to troubleshoot his own code. I’d fire you if you worked for me. Guess now that its published and the articles have been written and your presentations made you don’t give a flip.
There is a another component someone else wrote. I’ll just check it out instead.
Maybe I will post to flexcoders and explain that the person who helped write it wouldn’t take the time to help out. Yeah that should look good.
Thanks for ummm.. Well nothing I guess. Enjoy

Wow, you’re amazing you know it? I have a family, a full-time job and other shit going on, I’ve spent countless hours writing the code, written articles, answered several questions on my blog (including yours) and on flexcoders, and because I don’t have time to investigate your question right now that makes me a bad person/developer? You’ve been given a very good library for zero cost and you throw a temper tantrum because I can’t personally investigate your issue? Why can’t you post to flexcoders? Shit man, put forth some effort! The code has been downloaded over 6000 times and nobody has ever reported this issue. Doesn’t mean its not a valid problem, but asking you to do a little bit more than flood my inbox whining that it doesn’t work is a reasonable request. Please do post your complaint to flexcoders. Please.

Jeez man, you couldn’t be more unappreciative. What exactly makes you feel entitled to free code plus support? Tell you what, send me $100 and I will be glad to investigate your issue personally. After all, I am sure you’re getting paid for the project you’re using our code in, so lets be fair and share the wealth. Right?

Unbelievable.

Ben

33 Responses to 'I guess donating code isn’t enough anymore'

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  1. Brendan Meutzner said,

    on February 4th, 2008 at 2:39 pm

    Un-fucking-believable… Great response Ben.

  2. Brendan Meutzner said,

    on February 4th, 2008 at 2:50 pm

    Still laughing about this…

    In response to “I’d fire you if you worked for me” and the fact his sig says I/T Manager, you should have said “probably wouldn’t want to work for an asshole like you anyway”

    :-)

  3. john W said,

    on February 4th, 2008 at 2:57 pm

    Wow, weak sauce!

    I mean really Ben! You guys suck for releasing a great library for getting windowing into an app, eliminating a ton of the hard up front effort. You should quit your job and just support your free open source code!

    Some people… I swear.

  4. Jason Fincanon said,

    on February 4th, 2008 at 3:31 pm

    Wow.

    Just… wow.

  5. Chris Allen said,

    on February 4th, 2008 at 3:36 pm

    “Pisses me off to no end when a developer won’t take the time to troubleshoot his own code. I’d fire you if you worked for me.”

    Damn, the balls this guy has!

    Unfortunately I’m familiar with this approach to getting free help. We get this type of situation more than we would like with Red5. I think you handled it the right way though by posting this thread; perhaps it will make others think before rudely harassing OSS developers about their code. Some people just don’t get open source software. They think it means free everything!

    Anyway, you are not the only one getting responses like this. Just thought you would like to know. Thanks for contributing back to the community!

  6. Brian Holmes said,

    on February 4th, 2008 at 3:38 pm

    Did he ever produce an app showing his problem?

  7. Brian Holmes said,

    on February 4th, 2008 at 3:40 pm

    I’m just kinda curious as to what kind of problem would get him so worked up. I’ve yet to actually understand his exact problem.

  8. Mike Britton said,

    on February 4th, 2008 at 3:46 pm

    Everyone wants everything for free. What a jackass. My response would have been a lot harsher.

  9. Ben said,

    on February 4th, 2008 at 3:46 pm

    @Brian,

    Nope, and when I add the attribute he mentioned I don’t get any error. My guess is that even though he said it is, MDIWindowEvent is not imported.

  10. Lordy said,

    on February 4th, 2008 at 3:48 pm

    unappreciative bastard!

  11. Ethan said,

    on February 4th, 2008 at 3:51 pm

    He probably agreed to do a job that’s way over his head. He’s drowning in it, panicking and lashed out at you because he needs to blame someone other than himself. Some people just assume that the flash community is there to solve all their problems for free.

    Sounds to me that Keith needs to sit down and dig into the code and teach himself. He needs to remember nothing in the world is free. I doubt his employer gives services away for free.

  12. Brian C said,

    on February 4th, 2008 at 3:53 pm

    Dear Keith, you’re an asshole. Seriously, if one guy can’t respond to your every whim… big deal. There are other resources out there that can probably help you… Ben was just being honest saying he personally just doesn’t have the time to solve your issue that is probably due to you not taking the time to learn how to correctly use the library in the first place. I would never work for an asshat I/T manager who thinks he knows everything and if not he blames the people doing the real work to fuel his delusion that he knows shit about coding.

  13. Julian said,

    on February 4th, 2008 at 3:54 pm

    That’s awesome. I like how the google ads on this page now show nothing but ads for car insurance.

  14. Mike Weiner said,

    on February 4th, 2008 at 3:55 pm

    Well Keith, I OWN a web development business. If I would have seen one of my employees write an e-mail like that, I would fire THEM on the spot. I’m sure Ben really wants to help you now…

    Stop embarrassing yourself and your company.

  15. Tony Fendall said,

    on February 4th, 2008 at 4:14 pm

    Ben, the code you provide has always been fantastic and I’m sure that the error was in his code, not yours. I really appreciate all the work you do.

    This guy is a complete jackass, and a huge embarrasment to his company

  16. Chris F said,

    on February 4th, 2008 at 4:37 pm

    Brilliant Ben! Absolutely brilliant. You couldn’t have handled that any better and extra kudos for having his name in there so others can be warned. It is simply amazing how much people will take for granted isn’t it….

  17. Arnoud said,

    on February 4th, 2008 at 6:35 pm

    Hi Ben,

    It’s a shame that you already put some time in this clown.
    To be honest i’m not having myself any open source projects going on, but i am a verrrrrry happy guy with all the nice stuff that you put on this blog. Teaches me a lot. So thanx for that and all your interesting posts! I hope this f$#!er Keith doesnt make you less willing to to share your insights with us.

    Arnoud

  18. Dave Spurr said,

    on February 4th, 2008 at 6:42 pm

    At least I know I’m not alone in getting people like this wanting everything for nothing (and right now). One of my code releases has had over 30,000 downloads and I’ve had a few conversations like this, usually after trying to help the user out.

    But I’m sure these are as much in the minority in your case as they are in mine.

  19. zwetan said,

    on February 5th, 2008 at 2:07 am

    unbelievable indeed

    I start really to get fed up with all the BS I see about open source and wanabee-whining-a**hole wanting other people to do their homework (or simply work) for them

    respect Ben, nice self control to not have put some harsher words :)

  20. Graham said,

    on February 5th, 2008 at 5:42 am

    Highly amusing… Sadly some people have acquired a cultural mindset of free instant gratification.

    Graham

  21. Jensa said,

    on February 5th, 2008 at 6:27 am

    Amazing! What an idiot?
    I would never have been as polite as you were here. I’d never offer him any kind of support (no matter the price) as he is obviously implementing stuff that he does not know how to use and debug.

    Fun read tho, so thanks for posting.

    J

  22. Craig said,

    on February 5th, 2008 at 1:36 pm

    The flexmdi project is awesome and exactly what I need for a project. I was suprised to find this post because oddly enough I just discovered the exact same problem that Keith found. The problem is that the flexmdi.containers.MDIWindow class in the downloadable SWC in both zips available at http://code.google.com/p/flexmdi/ seem to have a problem. In the older zip the source for MDIWindow refers to an event class called mdi.events.MDIWindowEvent (which doesn’t exist) and not flexmdi.events.MDIWindowEvent. While the source in http://flexmdi.googlecode.com/files/flexmdi_v1.0_sdk201.zip seems to be updated, the SWC in that zip doesn’t seem to be. In fact, the zip appears to be two minutes older then the source. So I’m guessing the SWC was compiled just before someone updated the MDIWindow.as source file.

    If you have a build script (ant perhaps?) or if you could identify what compiler options you use to create the SWC that would be great. I’ll recompile from src.

  23. Craig said,

    on February 5th, 2008 at 1:40 pm

    WAIT!!! I’m an idiot :) I miss read flexbuilders error message after I imported the updated SWC. I forgot I had an
    “import mdi.events.MDIWindowEvents” which, of course, is missing.

    But do you some sort of build script or compiler options? That may be good to add to the SVN repo. thanks again, and seriously this is a great project.

  24. Ben said,

    on February 5th, 2008 at 3:05 pm

    Hi Craig, don’t think I am following you, can you clarify?

  25. Dominick Accattato said,

    on February 5th, 2008 at 5:03 pm

    Unbelievable, and yet this stuff happens all too often!

  26. joeflash said,

    on February 5th, 2008 at 5:20 pm

    Keith (Craig?) is what is known as a “help vampire”. I know I’ve had my share of bite marks over the years ;)

    With users like that, sometimes it’s just a matter of “think, stupid!” before pressing SEND. Flame wars start over users not bothering to be as thoughtful with their keystrokes as they would be with their mouths. Which is immaturity, mostly. Sometimes they are truly ungrateful. Good for you for not putting up with that BS.

    Don’t let it ruin your day though. If another user gets demanding, just say, here’s the docs, here’s my preliminary assessment, but sorry, don’t have time to debug your application, and my consulting fee is X. If they won’t play nice with other children, they don’t deserve a response. Mark future emails as spam, and be done with it. You work too hard to be upset by dingwads like that.

    I for one am greatful for FlexMDI, and am using it right now on a client project, it’s become an excellent starting point for our UI. Kudos for sharing it with us.

    Hey, you might even put up a Paypal “donate to FlexMDI” badge. You deserve it.

  27. Ben said,

    on February 5th, 2008 at 5:40 pm

    Thanks for the support and kind words everyone, they are most definitely appreciated. I do want to point out that FlexMDI was a joint effort between myself, Brendan Meutzner and Brian Holmes. I feel like sometimes I get too much credit since most of the talking about the project has gone on here but the actual creation of it (the hard and important part) would not have been possible without the group effort.

    @Dave Spurr and Craig - my apologies, Akismet flagged your comments as spam and I just now noticed. I pretty much never look thru the flagged items so I am glad I did today.

    @joeflash - Craig found the same issue Keith reported but apparently figured it out. Without throwing a hissy fit :)

  28. Andy said,

    on February 8th, 2008 at 9:09 pm

    Crazy… Just want to add that I had a issue (of my own creation) with my implementation of this great framework - I posted a comment on this site and received a reply from Ben very quickly, which then moved to email. I was surprised to get a response within the same day as my post - thanks again Ben.

    This is free code! I was looking at a requirement for this functionality for an upcoming project and would have spent a lot of time (cash) to achieve the same results.

    Keith - surely you could have spent a couple of hours making a build of the flexMDI library yourself and had a crack at debugging it before freaking out…

  29. Brandon Ellis said,

    on February 11th, 2008 at 6:42 pm

    So good!
    Its sad that understanding the concept of ‘Being a dick will not get you help’ goes so far over some folk’s heads. ;)

    Oh well, folks that are smart enough to understand are usually smart enough to use google as well. :)

  30. Christopher Keeler said,

    on February 19th, 2008 at 9:37 am

    Dear Keith,

    Crack a book, and learn how to fix the problem yourself. Honestly, this was a free component that you got, and you’re lucky to even have talented people like Ben posting this for the community. I thank God every day for people like Ben and other super talented developers that post open-source components…They make me, and my projects, look and function way better than I ever could.

    A few questions are okay, but you don’t have to be a bastard about it. Here are some words of wisdom: “You’ll attract more flies with honey than with vinegar.”

  31. RJ Forbes said,

    on February 19th, 2008 at 3:59 pm

    All I can say is, thank you for providing great resources and explanations to the community. I came across your site a little while back when researching checkbox item renderer’s. It’s people like you that keep the scene alive and interesting to be a part of. Keep up the good work and don’t let the unappreciative get to you. They will self destruct on there own.

  32. andrew said,

    on March 8th, 2008 at 12:27 am

    wow…i didn’t realize how much entertainment i was missing. i’m a little behind the curve on this one, but let me just chime in now…

    what a total shitbox this guy is. i love how the interweb allows one to all of a sudden become Mouth McToughKins when in real life, keith is probably a highly fragile piece of mommy’s good china.

    you write good stuff, ben. it’s cool to see how much you’ve grown over the years…

    .a.

  33. Jason Michael said,

    on July 2nd, 2008 at 4:00 pm

    Man, I wonder what this guy does when someone gets his order wrong at the drive thru of McDonald’s. He probably goes ballistic and tells them the same thing, “You’d all be fired if you worked for me!”

    The same type of guy probably threatened to sue Google when they didn’t index his website.

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