[lox]

I’m an open-source author too, and I experience the same frustrations with demands for support and features, so I deeply hear you. That said, your initial comment did come across as pretty flippant without the context in your reply.

I think it was the “should” bit. Just as nobody should be able to tell you whether you can add light hearted features to your software that make you happy, you shouldn’t be telling others authors that it’s not ok for us to write open-source software that aims to be professional, transparent and trustworthy. I’m sure the things you write are these things too, and I agree sometimes it’s good to be light hearted and have fun, but I reject that we “should” inject reminders like this in our open source with the intention of reminding others it’s free. That would take us back to the days of nagware, IMO.

At any rate, if you were just venting, I hear you. Thank you for your contributions to open-source!

[em-bee]

you shouldn’t be telling others authors that it’s not ok for us to write open-source software that aims to be professional, transparent and trustworthy

the poster didn't say that. i think you are reading a bit to much into those words. there is no mention of what other authors should do. poster is talking about their own motivations for adding features like that, but in no way suggesting that everyone should do that.

your response suggests that you can't have fun with software that aims to be professional, transparent and trustworthy. i'd disagree with that. pranking others is not the only way to have fun. but if that is what you believe, maybe you shouldn't be telling others that they can't have fun with their software.

a more measured response might be to point out that having fun is ok, but doing so at the expense of others comes across as unprofessional, intransparent and untrustworthy. but if an author doesn't mind coming across like that, it's still their choice. but then, that's my opinion. yours might be different.

[CJefferson]

Firstly, I'm of course happy for anyone to write their software how they like -- I should say if you want to write "business ready" software, then that's great. Often such things are backed partly by company.

A better phrasing might be, fun Easter eggs, like wishing users Merry Christmas, might be a good way to denote software which is free, but is not designed to be slotted straight into a for-profit business critical situation -- certainly don't come crying if something breaks on IE 11 or whatever.