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> But in my field, in most cases the source code is never released at all. That's a far bigger problem that not having support to use it. I agree but I think i
by _dps 7y ago
> But in my field, in most cases the source code is never released at all. That's a far bigger problem that not having support to use it.
I agree but I think it's good for people to know that almost any moderately successful open project will attract whiners, complainers, entitled people, and in some cases outright abuse.
From the perspective of society, having no open code is worse than having open code that's unmaintained. We're agreed here.
From an individual contributor's perspective, opening yourself up to varying forms of whining and abuse "for the social good" (and not, say, for your tenure or publication count or whatever a researcher cares about in the moment) is a bigger problem than just sitting quietly on stuff you don't want to become a drain on your life.
- Bakary 7y agoWhat exactly are the whiners going to do if you just ignore them?
- _dps 7y agoLeaving aside the outright abusive, probably nothing. But how excited would you be to receive in your inbox "Your [beloved project] didn't solve my pet problem the way I wanted! This software sucks and the devs are lazy bastards who don't listen to the community". Then imagine getting one of these a month, a week, even a day if your project is very successful. It's of course nothing like actual abuse or threats of violence but it's an emotional toll that I certainly wouldn't want to pay. I have better things to do with my life.
- exolymph 7y agoPublish the repo and then immediately archive it. The code is out there but people won't be able to leave issues, comments, etc.
- krageon 7y agoIf you use an online presence that is traceable across the internet, some subset of them will bother you everywhere or decide to make your life miserable when you ignore them. As such, anything that can remotely be seen as connected to you with any longevity is best put online without your name and with a throwaway nickname. Given that precaution, nothing! Sadly a lot of people don't take this precaution.
- zrobotics 7y agoIf the code is released anonymously, what good is it though (in the context of research code)? Ideally it should be connected to the paper to allow for replication, and what academic would want to release a paper anonymously?
- krageon 7y agoI think we agree then that releasing code connected to a paper is something I wouldn't recommend anyone actually do, even if I do like it when it does happen :)