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> Forking is extremely aggressive This is not so. If you said "forking can be perceived as an aggressive action"* I would not disagree with you, but in the con
by sequoia 7y ago
> Forking is extremely aggressive
This is not so. If you said "forking can be perceived as an aggressive action"* I would not disagree with you, but in the context of an FOS ecosystem, forking should not be perceived as aggressive, and it definitely is not inherently so. If someone doesn't want anyone to fork their project, why release it under an open source license? Free/Open source, full control: pick one.
I object to the characterization of forking as aggressive first because it's not, and second because it cuts off another potential avenue of redress or action. We already agree that "shouting on twitter and reddit" is not a good response. If you declare forking off limits or "impolite," what alternatives are left in a case like this?
I acknowledge the complicated ecosystem impacts of forking a popular project (I'm from the JS world where the impacts are extreme), but I don't think "let a project stagnate or yell and shout because the maintainer has other priorities" is a better alternative.
Forking a project in a case like this should be seen as "putting your money where your mouth is"/"stepping up to the plate"/taking on responsibility for change if you think a project is going in the wrong direction. Personally, I fault bitter complainers who don't fork a project for being lazy: do you care enough to actually do the maintainer's job, to take on that responsibility? If no, then what gives you the right to condemn them? If yes, great! Your problem is solved and you can maintain rather than complain.
More forks please.
* just as asking someone "where are you from?" can be perceived as aggressive but that doesn't make it objectively/inherently aggressive.
- steveklabnik 7y agoI actually agree with you in a general sense, but our own opinions don't really matter much. What matters is the opinions in the aggregate. I wish that it wasn't perceived as such, but the reality is that it is. Ignore that at your own peril.
- quotemstr 7y agoWhat peril? Why is everyone treating online outrage mobs as if they had any power or authority? Who cares if some unimportant anonymous commentator thinks a fork is aggressive?
- steveklabnik 7y agoIf you are trying to get people to use your project, understanding how those people perceive your project is step 1.
- quotemstr 7y agoAgreed. But how do we define "people"? Are your prospective users all hanging out on Reddit and Twitter? Or are these two communities, as I believe, vocal but unrepresentative slices of a much larger potential silent user base?
- steveklabnik 7y agoTotally, I think that sometimes, forks do make sense! Sometimes, you have to be aggressive, and people will find it justified. io.js is a great example of this happening and working.
- godshatter 7y agoWhy? What's the danger here? Is the original maintainer going to send someone named Vinny to break your legs if you fork a project that won't accept a security patch you need? I think you should just fork it privately, apply your patch, and move on with your life.
- steveklabnik 7y agoIf you're keeping it private, none of this applies. I'm talking about "hey that project is bad, I am now maintaining a competing project, please use it instead."
- growse 7y agoInstead of framing it as "that project is objectively bad, my one is better", why not say "my project is a fork of this project but with a bit less unsafe" and then see what the community does? Forking isn't provocative. Forking and then claiming your fork is objectively superior is.
- mLuby 7y agoOn the consumer-dev side, more forks make discoverability much harder. It really helps when there's a canonical place to find a given piece of software. Having to follow comment threads across various platforms to find the most stable version with that feature you want is a huge pain. Also the core dev(s) for larger projects are usually somewhat responsive, whereas devs who fork to add their one feature usually aren't signing up for that core maintainer experience when they do so.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]