Runspired vs. Chris Manson on Solving the Number One Open Source Maintainer Dilemma

As Chris Thoburn (otherwise known as runspired) began prepping for his own Whiskey Web and Whatnot, he found himself driving along to Chris Manson's episode from a few weeks prior. Nodding along as Chris explained his point of view on all things Ember, runspired suddenly slammed on the brakes after hearing one pivotal sentence. 

At the center of his break slam and today's fierce disagreement? The value of TypeScript and its place in the Ember community. Fortunately, Chris and Chris have the same end goal: to encourage more developers to use Ember and contribute to Ember projects. But how do we keep Ember contributor-friendly while keeping contributions careful? One of them yearns for a happy medium and the other feels that balance is forever impossible.

In this episode, runspired and Chris Manson battle it out, discussing TypeScript's place in the Ember community and balancing the volume of Ember contributors with the accuracy of developer edits.

Key Takeaways

• [02:49] - A whiskey review. 
• [09:55] - What whiskey and NFTs have in common. 
• [11:37] - Runspired explains the source of his smackdown with Chris Manson. 
• [15:38] - Where Chris Manson and runspired stand on TypeScript. 
• [19:29] - Chris Manson's side of the story.
• [20:02] - How runspired and Chris Manson think we'll get more developers contributing to Ember. 
• [29:09] - Where runspired and Chris Manson actually agree.
• [37:18] - Where Chris Manson stands on TypeScript. 
• [40:56] - How to balance contributor-friendly with contributor careful. 
• [44:58] - The problem with Ember sponsorships and Ember advocates. 
• [01:02:53] - Some closing thoughts on today's smackdown, Peaky Blinders, and an NFT-themed whatnot. 

Quotes

[26:19] - "The more that we've adopted TypeScript, the more I've seen people capable of making a contribution without my assistance that had the right fix." ~ runspired [https://www.instagram.com/runspired/]

[43:20] - "I see Ember Learn, the org, and all of the things that we maintain, as kind of a gateway drug to becoming an Ember CLI contributor, a framework contributor, an Ember Data contributor. It's like a training ground." ~ Chris Manson [https://twitter.com/real_ate]

[44:58] - "What we really need is a developer advocate for Ember. We need, as a community, to find some pool of funding, to hire somebody, to be 100% focusing on that pipeline that I'm talking about: getting people in at the bottom, finding ways for them to get from the bottom to the middle grounds, identifying the projects, project managing people up that scale, and getting them to (runspired's) door when they are ready." ~ Chris Manson [https://twitter.com/real_ate]

Links

• Chris Manson [https://twitter.com/real_ate]
• runspired [https://www.instagram.com/runspired/]
• Chuck on Twitter [https://twitter.com/CharlesWthe3rd]
• Whiskey Web and Whatnot: Ember vs. React, Jamstack, and Holes in the Hiring Process with Chris Manson [https://www.whiskeywebandwhatnot.fm/ember-vs-react-jamstack-and-holes-in-the-hiring-process-with-chris-manson/]
• Whiskey Web and Whatnot: Discovering Ember, Adopting Orbit, and Unlocking Optimization with Chris Thoburn (runspired) [https://www.whiskeywebandwhatnot.fm/discovering-ember-adopting-orbit-and-unlocking-optimization-with-chris-thoburn-runspired/]
• Whiskey Web and Whatnot: Work-Life Balance, React, and Why Accessibility is Everything with Melanie Sumner [https://www.whiskeywebandwhatnot.fm/work-life-balance-react-and-why-accessibility-is-everything-with-melanie-sumner/]
• Jos. A. Magnus & Co. [https://josephmagnus.com/spirits/murray-hill-club/]