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insidious_machinae · 03-13-2006, 11:22 AM

Okay, so I have a little problem. This might fit on another board a little better, but it's really focused mostly on programming, so I'm putting it here.

I work as a contractor for a couple different companies doing various types of programming. I'm used to CVS and SVN, have weekly meetings and reports, and am very well focused on my work. I treat all my hobby coding projects with exactly this same level of focus.

However, when it comes to hobby projects, I can't get anyone motivated to have the same committment I have to the project. For instance, I have a Java OpenGL engine, 2 games, and a couple different applications, as well as two websites (one of which is supposed to be a group project) that I've started projects for. But NOBODY (who has any amount of programming skill) is motivated to help. Interested, yes. But when it comes down to actually writing code, nobody seems to budge. I would be okay with this if the people in question were actually BUSY people, but they aren't.

Person 1 is actually one of my roommates. 99% of the day he spends sitting on the couch in front of the TV (with his computer in front of him on the coffee table). He often complains that he's bored, so he ends up watching movie after movie all day long. I figured that knowing how good of a programmer he is, he might want to screw around with my code. He set up his connection to my SVN server after a couple days of bugging him, but since hasn't touched it.

Person 2 is a friend of mine from freshman year. She's not as good a programmer as I am, but when I asked her if she wanted to help out, she was really excited sounding. We met up at a computer lab on campus, and I showed her the code in its current state. However, that was 3 weeks ago, and she hasn't contacted me once since to get access to the SVN or anything.

Person 3 has barely any programming knowledge, but when I asked for help, he was totally interested in helping in any way he could. He drew up some maps for the engine to be tested on (which might be used for one of the games), and wishes there were more he could do. Unfortunately his job prevents him from taking the time to learn any programming languages, so he can't do much else but sit by and watch while I work on the code.

So that's just a couple examples. There's 3 more people I've tried to interest who just didn't show any interest at all, let alone motivation. So what do I do? Any suggestions? Should I just set up a project website and get people online to help?

03-13-2006, 11:22 AM	#1 (permalink)
insidious_machinae Psycho	Getting others motivated to code Okay, so I have a little problem. This might fit on another board a little better, but it's really focused mostly on programming, so I'm putting it here. I work as a contractor for a couple different companies doing various types of programming. I'm used to CVS and SVN, have weekly meetings and reports, and am very well focused on my work. I treat all my hobby coding projects with exactly this same level of focus. However, when it comes to hobby projects, I can't get anyone motivated to have the same committment I have to the project. For instance, I have a Java OpenGL engine, 2 games, and a couple different applications, as well as two websites (one of which is supposed to be a group project) that I've started projects for. But NOBODY (who has any amount of programming skill) is motivated to help. Interested, yes. But when it comes down to actually writing code, nobody seems to budge. I would be okay with this if the people in question were actually BUSY people, but they aren't. Person 1 is actually one of my roommates. 99% of the day he spends sitting on the couch in front of the TV (with his computer in front of him on the coffee table). He often complains that he's bored, so he ends up watching movie after movie all day long. I figured that knowing how good of a programmer he is, he might want to screw around with my code. He set up his connection to my SVN server after a couple days of bugging him, but since hasn't touched it. Person 2 is a friend of mine from freshman year. She's not as good a programmer as I am, but when I asked her if she wanted to help out, she was really excited sounding. We met up at a computer lab on campus, and I showed her the code in its current state. However, that was 3 weeks ago, and she hasn't contacted me once since to get access to the SVN or anything. Person 3 has barely any programming knowledge, but when I asked for help, he was totally interested in helping in any way he could. He drew up some maps for the engine to be tested on (which might be used for one of the games), and wishes there were more he could do. Unfortunately his job prevents him from taking the time to learn any programming languages, so he can't do much else but sit by and watch while I work on the code. So that's just a couple examples. There's 3 more people I've tried to interest who just didn't show any interest at all, let alone motivation. So what do I do? Any suggestions? Should I just set up a project website and get people online to help?