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Message: <blockquote data-quote="stefpet" data-source="post: 28605" data-attributes="member: 17180">I'm rather new to MediaPortal and it's community. I've just recently started to build my HTPC and I've been looking at everything from MCE, Beyond to Meedio and MediaPortal. I've decided to go with MediaPortal, mostly because it looks very good, it has the bling but most importantly it is open-source so I as a developer may contribute in general but also being able to add features myself that I see I want.So, I'm new to the MediaPortal community so I'm not sure of all history and everything. With that said I must say the situation with "ungrateful whining users" is unfortunately all to common and exist in nearly all projects (open source or not). I've been developing an application (unrelated to this) for the past 7 years, and I now the feeling. Some time the motiviation really disappears when you work hard but there are still people complaining that the new release didn't include "their" feature, etc.So my point is, we need to come up with a solution to deal with this, because the problem isn't going away.When browsing the forums I've noticed there are some dedicated users, who may not be developers themselves, but they do contribute a lot to MediaPortal by being active in the forum. These users are really valuable! And they may do even more.One thing is to improve communication to minimize "when is it going to be released?" question. Put a roadmap for everyone to see on the frontpage of the website - and keep it updated. Be restrictive with dates (if any). That's one little thing...The most important thing, I think, is to start some kind of support team (preferably by those existing dedicated forum users) that may handle - and filter before it is reaching the developers - many of the forum postings. Being everything from bug reports and feature requests, thus releaving the developers both from the time but most importantly from dealing with the whining.Maybe some of these things are already in place, I'm not sure.Another thing may be to try to structure up the documentation/FAQ (also something not requiring programming knowledge). At least as a new user it seems like quite a mess with some part in the forum, some in the wiki, some on the web. Some outdated, some new. All under different domains so you never know what is official and not. Maybe doing that may ease up the flood even more.And may it has to be communicated even more, if you need a feature or a change. Do it yourself or get a developer friend to do it for you - that's the power of open-source (and additionally you are contributing to the project).Maybe even arrange bounties (somewhat like Google's Summer of Code), if someone really needs a feature he might sponsor the feature request with an amount of money (whatever he think it is worth). Then the person implementing the feature receives the money. This may motivate existing developers but also attract outside developers to contribute.Well, well... maybe I'm just ranting and sad to see a knowledgable developer to go...</blockquote>

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