Users, they are both to love and to hate. Developers, they are to love and to hate.

As developer you have to deal with users, that's quite normal (unless you work for MicroSoft). Users can be very persuasive in annoying you. For example telling you that all you, as developer of an Open Source project, did is wrong. Mostly they have some point about the technical issues, but the tone with which their ideas are totally insane. For instance Mr M.L. from Brazil. Mr M likes to bitch about his own great project by plugging it in every possible way. His ideas about the project you are working on are of course always right and yours are never right. But he forgets that it is an Open Source project, on which alot of developers have their own ideas about. The most annoying thing is that Mr M doesn't do anything to fix things, he only bitches.

Users can also bring pleasure, sometimes physical (Sterling's dancing girls for instance), but mostly emotional. For instance telling them they like the project or the things you are doing to help them or the project. Most developers need this kind of rewards to stay motivated, atleast it helps me to stay motivated.

As user you have to deal with developers. For the most time developers can be real pricks, deciding for you what is right or wrong. But face it, it's them who actually build your open source tool, and don't get paid shit for it. So if you want them to do something for you, you need to play it friendly. If you play it friendly, you will see that developers are friendly to you, and that they even might implement your function request, or help you solve a problem you have.

As developer you have to deal with fellow developers. Mostly its great fun to talk with other developers about your project. Sometime the fights between developers are heavier than fights between users. It's fun to wave with RFCs, but not very constructive. Thank god these fights dont happen that often, the biggest piece of Open Source developing is just fun, fun, and more fun.

With these last thought I conclude my ranting on users and developers, see you next time