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Sorry everybody, I failed with you

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Re: Sorry everybody, I failed with you

#71

Post by c-cube »

radarsat1 wrote: post #7

Of course it's terrible to become burnt out and it feels awful not having enough time to work on an open source project that you love. But, is it just me or has it become rarer for open source project maintainers to feel free to let projects go? I don't mean to let them die, I mean, to find like-minded individuals to which you can defer some or all of the work? I realize that as the original author one feels a sense…

A temporary BDFL... Would that be called a TBD (temporary benevolent dictator)? :)

Re: Sorry everybody, I failed with you

#73

Post by yuvalr1 »

cheph wrote: post #20
yarcob wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I maintain two slightly popular open source apps, and my experience is that there are a lot of people interested in using your product, but very few people interested in contributing to it. I've had a few people offer help over the course of the years, but unfortunately they don't always have all the skills needed, so they can only help with a part of the project. When they do have the necessary skills, they don't ha…

> I've had a few people offer help over the course of the years, but unfortunately they don't always have all the skills needed, so they can only help with a part of the project. So whats wrong with allowing them to help with those parts?

I don't know why you're being downvoted for a truly honest question.

The answer to this is that getting partial help sometimes costs more time than getting no help at all.

Re: Sorry everybody, I failed with you

#74

Post by gwd »

mattgreenrocks wrote: post #70
fock wrote: post #22

and of course: it's javascript! because literally every other community would have no problem if their doc-generator got unmaintained, because it would probably run for another ten years...

There’s also a defective culture meme that believes software that hasn’t been updated in the past week is dying. This is a conceptual hack to avoid considering the state of the ecosystem.

I think GP is trying to imply that there's so much churn in the Javascript ecosystem that any project which isn't updated will actually stop working in a relatively short amount of time.

Re: Sorry everybody, I failed with you

#75

Post by watwut »

bawolff wrote: post #39
arkitaip wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about the insane entitlement that many devs have when it comes to open source? Getting bombarded with requests and angry emails from people who demand free support and bug fixes can burn anyone out. I think Github can be a positive force for change here. Redesign the UI to encourage donations, to encourage people to get involved in project work, to write less hostile issues, etc. If devs and designers can weaponi…

I wonder if this is a back-firing of the push for people to be "nice" and "professional". Open source maintainers used to have the sterotype of being rather harsh, and basically telling people to f off if they had stupid questions, didn't RTFM or didn't follow cultural norms. And dont get me wrong, there's a lot wrong with that, but maybe it was also that way for a reason.

Nice professional people have large backlogs ignored for years, say no to requests or delay work. Otherwise said, being nice and professional does not imply you will immediately implement every feature request or bug report. It does not imply you will not block/mute abusive people.

Re: Sorry everybody, I failed with you

#76

Post by detaro »

c-cube wrote: post #71
radarsat1 wrote: post #7

Of course it's terrible to become burnt out and it feels awful not having enough time to work on an open source project that you love. But, is it just me or has it become rarer for open source project maintainers to feel free to let projects go? I don't mean to let them die, I mean, to find like-minded individuals to which you can defer some or all of the work? I realize that as the original author one feels a sense…

A temporary BDFL... Would that be called a TBD (temporary benevolent dictator)? :)

Shouldn't it be BTD? Somehow that word order feels better.

Re: Sorry everybody, I failed with you

#78

Post by imhoguy »

inbx0 wrote: post #64
andrewstuart wrote: post #34

The pattern is familiar: * open source project * success * no monetary reward, maybe just cost * burnout * project abandoned This is why I don't try to make any open source projects - what's the gain? I'd only do it if it paid money. If people aren't willing to pay then I'm not willing to work.

I think it's worth noting that it doesn't seem like the author here sees it quite the same way as you do. Burnout is obviously bad, but it also seems to me that he genuinely enjoys writing open source software, so I guess that enjoyment (plus some "opportunities" he got) is the gain.

This is quite similar situation when many idealist engineers grow, often unwillingly, into politics, management or C*O level - someday the coding fun ends and the not so fun business work takes over.

Re: Sorry everybody, I failed with you

#79

Post by rvz »

mschuster91 wrote: post #53
andrewstuart wrote: post #34

The pattern is familiar: * open source project * success * no monetary reward, maybe just cost * burnout * project abandoned This is why I don't try to make any open source projects - what's the gain? I'd only do it if it paid money. If people aren't willing to pay then I'm not willing to work.

> I'd only do it if it paid money. If people aren't willing to pay then I'm not willing to work. Would a form of UBI, together with 20 or 30 hours work week work for you? I seriously wonder what the state of open-source hardware and software would be if society would focus on redistributing automation gains more.

> Would a form of UBI, together with 20 or 30 hours work week work for you?

Every developer is different, but ideally they would do it full time if it pays significantly more than their current job.

Re: Sorry everybody, I failed with you

#80

Post by 3princip »

andrewstuart wrote: post #34

The pattern is familiar: * open source project * success * no monetary reward, maybe just cost * burnout * project abandoned This is why I don't try to make any open source projects - what's the gain? I'd only do it if it paid money. If people aren't willing to pay then I'm not willing to work.

If your primary motivation is short-term monetary gain then you're right, it doesn't sound like a rational undertaking.

I can think of two reasons to work on open source. Altruism, you want to give back to the community without expecting a monetary gain in return. Investment in skills, if you want to differentiate yourself from peers, you'll have something to talk about to potential employers. It is a great opportunity to learn and become a better software engineer.

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