The thing about Open Source development is that there is this weird 'coding to the fog' situation where the number of feedback that is received is SO small that it takes a lot of 'self-motivation' to keep going (specially at a high speed/energy level).
For example, I received today this really nice comment from Steven regarding the talk I did last week (where I presented a variation of Using a .Net/CLR, a Java/JVM and a C++ Window in another process (to show consolidated security findings) ):
...I was amazed by your work on O2, in fact so baffled I forgot to give you a standing ovation at the end of your talk at the OWASP Benelux days...
And it's nice to hear this .... thanks Steven, it means a lot to me :)
I spend so much time doing development where nobody gets what I'm doing (or where I'm going), that it is nice to see that some parts of it make sense to the outside world :)
The thing about this type of comments (positive or negative), is that they are very rare!
If you speak any anybody that does FOSS development (for example an OWASP project leader) he/she will talk to you about the spectacular lack of feedback received (good or bad).
In fact, I wish people complained more about the O2 Platform, which would mean that they used it more, and cared enough about it to complain (It talkes a LOT of time to write things down and to document what doesn't work)
So if you use a FOSS project regularly, and get value from it, then why don't you go drop the author(s) an email/post/comment today, saying 'thx' and given them a little bit of positive karma :)
