3 ms·
I agree that the author has every right to quit being a maintainer, for any reason, but I don't believe that he is necessarily absolved of all judgment just bec
by danso 8y ago
I agree that the author has every right to quit being a maintainer, for any reason, but I don't believe that he is necessarily absolved of all judgment just because it was a free project he did on his own time.
He's obviously a prolific and generous author, but that experience also means he's very aware about real-world practices (especially in the npm ecosystem) to know that ceding control of a popular library, without taking any precaution, has the potential to put a significant number of users at risk. Should the users be less complacent? Sure, but that's not currently the world we live in, and the author is not ignorant of that.
If an experienced electrician volunteers his time to a homeless shelter, and decides to quit halfway through a rewiring project, it's his right to quit whenever. But the manner in which he leaves the project is also important. There's a huge difference between:
- Confronting the shelter manager and saying "Hey, I can't do this anymore, and you get a professional ASAP to fix my work because I can't guarantee that I've properly grounded everything"
- Exchanging pleasant goodbyes with the shelter staff, and not giving them any reason to worry about what you may or may not have done.
The latter situation is akin to a silent failure -- even stomping off the job and telling the shelter to go fuck themselves is ultimately preferable, since the shelter staff at least are very aware that your work may be dangerously unfinished. While you may not be liable if anyone gets shocked/electrocuted from your leftover work, that doesn't mean the shelter staff are obligated to not grumble and warn anyone else who might be relying on you for volunteer work.
edit: that said, I don't have a major objection to the author's response, as submitted here. I was referring to people who think that any significant criticism is unwarranted, just because the work is free. The author, to his credit, made a decently detailed reply and continues to make thoughtful responses.
- mehrdadn 8y agoI think your example makes your point weaker rather than stronger, because unlike the electrician, this guy has no reason to believe he's done a bad by job himself, because he's not putting anyone's life in danger, and because others who are using his work are also supposed to be similar professionals in their technical fields and taking similar responsibility. Comparing it to laymen who know potentially nothing about secure wiring getting potentially electrocuted because of a malpracticing electrician is not a great comparison.
- danso 8y ago> and because others who are using his work are also supposed to be similar professionals I have a hard time believing that anyone who has built so many popular packages on npm (or any open source) also believes that the hundreds of thousands of users who install his work are "similar professionals" to him, or, even if they were, that they have built safeguards against this kind of scenario. I've barely used npm/node in the past few years and even I'm still aware of how the ecosystem makes silent changes to dependencies non-trivial to detect. > because he's not putting anyone's life in danger Software has real-world implications.
- mehrdadn 8y agoI'm trying to help you make a potentially good argument stronger, not trying to shut it down. Disputing it and telling me I'm wrong (even if I am) and that electrocuting people is like JS frameworks having "real-world implications" is not going to help you with that.
- danso 8y agoThanks for the help, but I don't see the need in perfecting the analogy. My argument is that volunteer work can be criticized, despite its altruistic intentions. I have no interest in debating with you about how software impacts lives. Apparently, this case has enough potential impact to be a much-discussed controversy.
- FakeComments 8y agoTo use your scenario, but slightly change it: - Tell the manager you will no longer be doing any work. - Not tell the manager you’re quitting and replacing yourself with a random stranger from Home Depot who seems interested. It’s not wrong for the electrician to quit, especially when volunteering, but it’s wrong not to properly notify people and to just let a random stranger take your place without notice.