And its all free. I can't think of a good reason why anyone would complain.
And then I see all of the people who were kind enough to donate having to slog through the complaints of those who haven't. It frustrates me.
A long time ago, I wrote a free modification to a program, distributed it for free with documentation on how to set it up, offered with no warranty, and my email address if someone had questions.
My only mistake was offering my real email address.
Now and then, out of the many many people who downloaded the module, I'd get a couple "Hey, this is great" emails. But the majority of the emails ranged from "this dun work" from people who didn't read the documentation to flames and screams from people likely incapable of understanding documentation let alone reading it. Those who asked nicely got a reply, and I think they all got it working, but those who whined and moaned usually got null-routed. One in particular I took pleasure in berating back, pointing out his own personal inadequacies and how worthless he must be for berating someone who worked quite a few hours on a project, without pay but for the love of it, and gave it to him for free with instructions on how to set it up, and then expecting - nee demanding - that the same person fix it for free and as soon as yesterday.
Okay, so you think development is going slow. What are you doing to help it? You think there should be a new release, or should have been one already. What have you done to move that process forward? Have you beta tested what's available and offered input, or at least played so statistics can be generated? Have you built new kickass maps for the next package? Have you written documentation that a drooling idiot can understand, but a FPS pro won't get bored reading? Or have you sat behind your keyboard in sweatpants that haven't been washed in weeks with a Mountain Dew stain on your teeth, callouses on your right hand and a stench that could make a skunk blush and whined and moaned that shit's not happening as fast as you'd like so everyone must be st00pit? Now think of it this way - if every day when you woke up, someone looked at you and said, "You're a worthless piece of shit, you'll never amount to anything, just stay in bed and die 'cause you aren't useful for more than fertilizer, and marginally so at that," would you get to a point where you just don't care anymore and couldn't be bothered doing anything?
Now get this.. with all that crap that gets thrown at the developers, many of them are
still working. They may not be fully visible, they may not be giving feedback, they may not be tossing around ideas and showing off new features, but they've also not cleaned out their code repo and washed their hands of the whole thing. They're putting up with the slings and arrows of all these idiots, and still moving forward with their ideas - arguably, and understandably a bit slower than before, but I don't see you doing anything to help.
This isn't to say you shouldn't ever say bad things. "I think <some feature> is overpowered/sucks/whatever" is feedback, and something which can help to balance things out if discussed. But if all you're going to do is post to increase your post count here and/or whine about what's happening and when (or what's not happening and for how long), then the best part of you was a stain on the mattress and you're not good for much else. Go rot in a ditch with your thumb up your ass, and the rest of us will enjoy the game that comes out when it's damned good and ready - and enjoy the one we've been given in the mean time.
Note that "you" isn't referring to anyone in particular, though I could probably come up with a list if I felt like being bothered
tl;dr? Be nice, be useful, or FOAD.
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