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Comment by simonw | Hacker News Reader

Since about half of this thread is (reasonably) taking offense at the implication from the headline that this is yet another demand for free labor from open source maintainers, I'd like to emphasize this sentence:

"I’d like to encourage more open source project maintainers to consider doing something similar"

It's a matter of fact that many people (myself included) form opinions based on the headline without reading the article - so I wish I'd worked a little harder coming up with a headline that better encapsulated that message!

"Open source projects should consider office hours" perhaps?

I'm going to change that headline on my blog now.

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I re-titled it "Open source projects: consider running office hours" - if a bunch of different people all misinterpret something the same way that implies poor communication on my part.

@dang - can we get the HN title updated to match this?

I think the problem here is that a lot of people (myself included) will understand the term "office hours" as being the typical time window that people work in the office - i.e. 8am to 5pm.

This might be exacerbated with non-native english speakers which you'll see a lot around here.

The new title you suggested doesn't fix anything (at least for me it doesn't). Maybe consider using more commonly known terms to refer to the fact that your opening up you calendar to video calls with anyone that shows up?

I considered that point of confusion too, but I decided I'm OK with people who are unfamiliar with the term "office hours" needing to click through and read the article. I picked "consider running office hours" because hopefully the word "running" there is slightly less likely to imply "consider only working 9-5pm".

I've added a note about the better German term "Sprechstunde" to both the article and my Calendly description: https://calendly.com/swillison/datasette-office-hours

"Consultation hours" may be a less confusing term.

No it doesn't imply that. Your article is crystal clear, and makes a valid point based on your personal experience. So, thanks for writing it, and don't bother too much for internet points !

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