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Don't be that open-source user, don't be me

jacobtomlinson.dev

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Re: Don't be that open-source user, don't be me

#31

Post by strken »

Sometimes you can just go fix the software yourself.

Maintainers always seem to say you should file an issue before working on a PR. However, I find for features you really need, you should just fork the software yourself[0] and implement what you need, then put up a quick PR with your changes. The worst they can do is reject your changes, in which case...well, you're using your fork anyway.

[0] Github forks are lightweight, easy(ish) to keep up to date, and integrated into a lot of package managers.

Re: Don't be that open-source user, don't be me

#32

Post by microtonal »

eCa wrote: post #9

> As time went on the wording of the +1s got stronger I think a +1 (as a thumbs up reaction, or similar) can’t be a bad thing. Comments that turn more passive/agressive (or just agressive) most certainly can. I don’t think the later should be mixed up with the former.

I think a +1 (as a thumbs up reaction, or similar)

If you refer to +1 comments (which the second sentence seems to imply), these are a bad thing, since it sends a notification to everyone who is subscribed to an issue. If you are maintaining a popular open source project, useful comments (reproducers, potential solutions) get buried between all useless +1 comments.

Re: Don't be that open-source user, don't be me

#33

Post by [deleted] »

eCa wrote: post #9

> As time went on the wording of the +1s got stronger I think a +1 (as a thumbs up reaction, or similar) can’t be a bad thing. Comments that turn more passive/agressive (or just agressive) most certainly can. I don’t think the later should be mixed up with the former.

[deleted]

Re: Don't be that open-source user, don't be me

#34

Post by pabs3 »

prox wrote: post #16
pabs3 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prioritisation often becomes harder the closer you become to being an open source maintainer, since you're often more focused on software maintenance/internals than on using the software in real-life contexts. I feel like creating systems for open prioritisation is going to be an important "next step" in open source project management. Igalia did an experiment in open prioritisation in web browser development, but th…

Doesn’t monetization also indirectly help the other issues?

Usually the maintainer's work is more money than they would ever get from monetization. Also the maintainer is one person, they can only do so much, eventually more people need to step up and do code/etc contributions.

Re: Don't be that open-source user, don't be me

#35

Post by welder »

dewey wrote: post #28
welder wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Edit: Nevermind, we're saying the same thing since you're talking about commenting with a +1 not reactions. > Adding a +1 comment really does nothing - it's just one more useless notifications for everyone I don't think reactions trigger notification emails.

They are talking about a literal comment saying something like "+1", which is very common. Not a thumbs up reaction.

Thanks, I must have missed that.

Re: Don't be that open-source user, don't be me

#36

Post by rglullis »

strken wrote: post #31

Sometimes you can just go fix the software yourself. Maintainers always seem to say you should file an issue before working on a PR. However, I find for features you really need, you should just fork the software yourself[0] and implement what you need, then put up a quick PR with your changes. The worst they can do is reject your changes, in which case...well, you're using your fork anyway. [0] Github forks are ligh…

Yes, and when for the times that you can't fix yourself should work as a reminder that you should be paying to support those who can.

Re: Don't be that open-source user, don't be me

#37

Post by microtonal »

bsder wrote: post #10

I kinda blame Github for all this. In the past, there was just a bit of friction before filing a bug or dropping a comment on a project. You had to sign up for bugzilla. You had to sign up for the mailing list. Something. Anything. It was just enough friction that you had to want to post that comment or file that bug. You weren't going to waste your time just to be a shit. With everything on Github, it's simply too e…

I see what you are saying. But on the other hand, I definitely neglected to report bugs in the past because I had to subscribe to a mailing list or sign up for another yet another bugzilla account (combined with bugzilla often being terribly slow).

I think GitHub has provided a net improvement because many smaller project get bug reports now (whereas they usually didn't in pre-GitHub times), while they usually do not have to deal with frivolous comments. I have many smaller projects that do get issues filed, but never useless comments.

Re: Don't be that open-source user, don't be me

#38

Post by Elinvynia »

Zenzengele wrote: post #24

Grafana is a bad example. They switched to agpl and pushing companies in paying for it. Which is okay of course but grafana labs is no longer a free open source project. Of course potentially feature request might come in by key account manager or other hidden business agreements but I myself still comment on the opensource front like GitHub issues. When my company now pays money for it, my expectation definitely cha…

How is AGPL not FOSS as defined by both OSI and FSF?

Re: Don't be that open-source user, don't be me

#39

Post by pcthrowaway »

laurent123456 wrote: post #8

Regarding adding +1 to issues - rather than doing this, up-vote the issue on GitHub (thumb up). This can be useful to maintainers because they can sort by thumb up and see the most popular ones. Adding a +1 comment really does nothing - it's just one more useless notifications for everyone, and it won't allow filtering or sorting issues. People might even unwatch the issue because of this and thus missing useful comm…

Perhaps I misunderstood the author, I assumed '+1' in this context meant the thumbs-up reaction. I'm certainly feeling much more charitable towards the OP if they literally meant people commenting "+1" (which is unfortunately a thing), but I think in a lot of contexts "+1", "thumbs-up", "like" are interchangable.

Re: Don't be that open-source user, don't be me

#40

Post by davedx »

Counterpoint: you have a successful open source project and you even “branded and marketed” it (like Grafana). You obviously want it to be successful? Then listen to your users and respond to their questions.

Entitlement is a two way street.

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