I thought about starting and ending this blog with ‘Ask not what the KDE community does for you, but ask yourself what you can do for the community’, but I don’t really like that slogan. On the other hand the marketing people did a similar cryptic message in a document about the KDE brand, so it must be good ;-) Anyhow. a great man once spoke about it and we should not abuse it I guess..

When I was a child I once heard someone say to someone complained about the mess on the street and that the city should take care of it that we form the city. Well within KDE I don’t think that’s much different.

So it is good now and then to ask your self if you are a good citizen. Are you raising your voice to protect a community member from the evil outside? Or even the inside? Do you joining an irc channel, ask a question, get an answer and quit irc again? Are you trying to help a subgroup within the community to reach a higher goal?

Sometimes I wonder about those things. I’m pretty much convinced that you need a group of people to lift each other to a higher level. Motivating people, brainstorming together to get more and better and more creative code, thinking out of the box now and then.

It is sad that many application only have one or two developers. I think those are the real hero’s. Especially if they keep up for ages.

Motivation is key for much of stuff we do. Some blogs on planet for example can be motivating for a certain group and be demotivating for another group. Just remember that when writing stuff on planet. But it happens everywhere. You can also think about generalizing classes so they can go to kdelibs and everyone get to profit from your code. Or just take a minute to talk to some developer about his application or things in life. With a little time you can do little stuff, and many people doing a bit, it all adds up to a big thing, just how a community should work.

Hmm, should I end this blog with that slogan now? I thought about not posting this blog, as it is pretty soft (not hard core C++-templating-KFilterProxyModelItemDelegate stuff), but it is my blog and my thoughts and what keeps me busy, so why not ;-)