[documentation] Hitchhikers guide to Drupal

[Charlie Lowe]

andre wrote:
> 
> I'm going to have to give the concept a marginal +1 - BUT the tone, 
> wording and everything else a BIG -1.
> Strictly from a PR perspective its not good at all.  It comes off as 
> sounding like: "Users are whiny brats - and Drupal has no time for you."

I agree. The following paragraph is awful from a marketing perspective:

"Users who don't contribute to Drupal are hitchhikers. Nobody needs them 
onboard, Drupal will get from A to B fine with or without them, and if 
they want Drupal to go out of its way on their behalf they should ask 
nicely, if there isn't time to take them exactly where they want to go 
hitchhikers should be thankful for the free ride they have had."

Besides the fact that I think it is arguably not true. Developers do 
want more contributors involved with the project. Those users who do not 
contribute visibly on the project may be helping by spreading the word 
about Drupal, and thus potentially getting more contributors. It's the 
same old argument that I used to see in the bar business 
(ex-bartender/restaraunt manager of 8 years). Many bartenders will 
refuse to wait on people who don't tip or barely tip. But others, myself 
included, believe that you do pay some attention to the non-tippers or 
those who tip below sub par because they do bring in other business. Or 
at the very least, you don't directly piss them off by complaining about 
their lack of tipping. Nothing good comes of that.

So rather than presenting a very negative view of the Drupal development 
community as non-user centric (which this does), why not focus on how 
the open source process works, how what happens occurs because of 
community contributions.