Public Relations

You start an open source project. Get a nice team to help you work on it.

Why did you start the project? Because you simply like the idea, and want to do it.
Why open source? Because you feel "hell, why shouldn't I release this?" or because you started this project with OS in mind.

Does it really matter if users decide to use your project? No. This is not a proposal to an important client, this is a project you did for fun, for public gain, whatever.

So the first question is, does PR really matter that much in this case? This is a true story, which happened to me. I ended up willingly leaving the project (due to some PR stuff I caused, as well as not liking their leadership style).

My opinion: No. If users don't use your project (this is a real story; it happened to me recently; I ended up quitting the project/team), it's not like you will go bankrupt.

(In the project I quit, they were practically the only option anyway. There was one other choice but the developer decided to cease development when the new project was completed.)

(The project was started due to some motivations, including that in the old project, only the leader could make official releases. The rest of the development team could not. But in this project, even though the development team can release officially, what the project leader says is still final. Kinda silly, no?)

Second question: What do you think about that project I described? I personally thought it was quite silly: good idea, terrible team.

Please be constructive, I want to know what you guys think.

Really depends on what you want.

You don't need PR if you...

• want to work on a project you and only you develop and use
  
• do not want input or help from others to find bugs, or to document code
  
• have no interest to tell other developers/programmers that this project might help them (what you might call public gain)
  

If you want a good quality open source project, you should do some PR. You don't need to do much, a webpage with information about the project and newest commit/update and a link to the git repository should be enough.

Also, even though this is not a thing most of us would think of, Firefox is an open source project that consist of lots of full-time-jobs. While that's not important for us, it shows that open source has a potential which shouldn't be underestimated (nor overestimated either, of course. Be realistic.)

I cannot say much about your project, but I want to point out certain things:

• Idea: I have no clue, you don't describe it.
  
• PR should be done by one person or by a committee, and the PR-thing should be accepted by everyone. Some people are better than others at PR, so it's natural to let them do the job.
  
• I don't know what exactly you didn't like about the leadership, but you generally don't have to have a leader in order to contribute to an open source project. Either way, if there are issues between you and a leader, talk to them or quit.
  

Really depends on what you want.

You don't need PR if you...

• want to work on a project you and only you develop and use
  
• do not want input or help from others to find bugs, or to document code
  
• have no interest to tell other developers/programmers that this project might help them (what you might call public gain)
  

If you want a good quality open source project, you should do some PR. You don't need to do much, a webpage with information about the project and newest commit/update and a link to the git repository should be enough.

Also, even though this is not a thing most of us would think of, Firefox is an open source project that consist of lots of full-time-jobs. While that's not important for us, it shows that open source has a potential which shouldn't be underestimated (nor overestimated either, of course. Be realistic.)

I cannot say much about your project, but I want to point out certain things:

• Idea: I have no clue, you don't describe it.
  
• PR should be done by one person or by a committee, and the PR-thing should be accepted by everyone. Some people are better than others at PR, so it's natural to let them do the job.
  
• I don't know what exactly you didn't like about the leadership, but you generally don't have to have a leader in order to contribute to an open source project. Either way, if there are issues between you and a leader, talk to them or quit.
  

That wasn't what I meant by PR. I have a sarcastic personality, so I tend to joke around on IRC about things. I said something wrong and voice was revoked; didn't want it back. Fast forward a few days, the project sets up their bugtracker. I wanted to be able to contribute code without putting myself on that list (apparantly because I'm on that list/voiced, people would listen to me over others. So I cannot say anything that CAN be misinterpreted about the project, which I did twice). And it quickly went downhill from there.

P.S. your username is very easy to read.

Since it open-source, PR can gain you more people to work with your team...

But I don't see the problem here, just seek a PR person who wants to join your team? Or can a team only consist of programming nerds? :+)

Since it open-source, PR can gain you more people to work with your team...

But I don't see the problem here, just seek a PR person who wants to join your team? Or can a team only consist of programming nerds? :+)

It's not my team. Read the things in brackets in the first post.