That's crap. It's just plain crap. It's like saying "Well, you could have made your own transmission for your car."
What you think is "not large extra effort" is *huge* extra effort for a lot of people. Average users shouldn't have to understand that there's a system of bounties and so-called community participation options available. The point is that people shouldn't *have* to be part of any programming community in order to get what they need. It is a _programming community_ for pity's sake. I don't need to understand anything about my car or television in order to get what I need for those things, and non-programmers should not have to navigate in and negotiate with an exclusive, selective, elitist programming community to get things they need in software.
Re: I think you just made a very good point
What you think is "not large extra effort" is *huge* extra effort for a lot of people. Average users shouldn't have to understand that there's a system of bounties and so-called community participation options available. The point is that people shouldn't *have* to be part of any programming community in order to get what they need. It is a _programming community_ for pity's sake. I don't need to understand anything about my car or television in order to get what I need for those things, and non-programmers should not have to navigate in and negotiate with an exclusive, selective, elitist programming community to get things they need in software.