[development] Why I don't Upload a Module to Drupal

[Robert Douglass]

You lazy blood sucking pig! (did that confirm your worst fears? ;-)

I think you describe what is actually the _typical_ Drupal developer -
the vast majority of people doing Drupal development work just like you
describe, and there's nothing wrong with that. Not everyone is going to
be able to be a module maintainer, for one reason or another, and that's
fine.

If you want to release your code and hope that it takes a life of its
own, write blog posts about it, attach the zip file, and make sure it
gets aggregated by Drupal Planet. You can add lots of caveats like
"Needs cleaning up, needs install and uninstall routines, has some
specific settings that could use an admin settings page." Make sure it
is GNU 2.0 licensed from the start. In doing this you'll help others
while helping yourself. You'll help others by making the code available,
in case it's useful for them, and you'll help yourself by having useful
information and code on your development blog which will further your
reputation and bring you the next round of great clients. Plus you may
even get feedback that will lead to better code.

Thanks for sharing this concern. I wonder how many people on this list
feel guilty because they feel they "haven't contributed enough"?

-Robert

-----Original Message-----
From: Sam Polenta <sam.polenta at gmail.com>
Reply-to: development at drupal.org
To: development at drupal.org
Subject: [development] Why I don't Upload a Module to Drupal
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:57:22 +0300

I have made a few custom modules for clients. Some of them maybe other
people would want. I would be happy to give them to whoever wants
them, BUT it's not necessarily so simple as that.

Mostly they have some customization for the particular site so I would
have to generalize them like with a settings page etc. Then I would
have to clean up the code a bit. Some would need an install and
uninstall routine which I didn't do because it's only for one site
anyway.

I would be happy even, in theory, to release them on drupal.org but
aside from the time to prepare them, which I don't really have, I also
don't have time to support them. So I figure even if I did fix it up a
bit and put it online, I am then expected to support it. I am not a
lazy person nor do I just suck the blood of everyone else who
contributes to Drupal without giving back. I do try to help people on
the forums a bit and the truth is that I help to "make the world a
better place" in other ways. I volunteer at a local NPO to help
people--when I sit down at the computer, it's mostly to work. I need
to make a living and this is how I do it.

So I don't think I'm a total pig--not at all really because I do
volunteer my time, but just for other causes aside from Drupal.

Do people think my reasons are wrong for not releasing my code? I
guess the main thing is that I'm not prepared to support any issues or
requests etc. that may come up.

Thanks.