There has recently been a bit of noise in the Fedora community around the general "feel" and direction of the community. Some folks are unhappy with some things and are voicing their displeasure. I thought I would collect a few links I found of note recently and my thoughts in general on this. First, go off and read Spots excellent post if you haven't already: February 1 Next up, the bugzilla folks had a very nice post about their community and growing it: Open Source Community, Simplified So, from these we can note a few things:

• If you run into a problem, try and propose a solution. If you don't have enough info to propose a solution, how about gathering information for others to allow them to look for solution? Something? Anything?
• Be kind and appreciative, avoid negative. Toward that end, I am going to try and praise people who propose or implement fixes or solutions and not worry as much about the people who are not.
• Removing barriers is a good thing. I'd like to see more parts of Fedora have "easyfix" lists or other things that can get people easily involved.

Now to get to the subject of this post: I think Carrots are much better than Sticks. Surely in open source communities. A reward for fixing/doing something (even if it's only a "great job") is much better and more productive than a "I hate this" or a "I don't like the way things are going here". Enough of the negative (stick) and people will stop listening to you or leave, but with more positive (carrot) others, including yourself will get more done and have a more fun time of things. So, if you find yourself trying to get something done in Fedora and can't get there due to too many people waving sticks at you, feel free to drop me a line and I will try and assist you into reaching for and grabbing that carrot (or at least pointing you in the right direction).