4 ms·

> It was the ability to respond, within hours, to a change made on any given site. I.e. youtube-dl stopped working? No problem, file an issue, wait a day, solv

> It was the ability to respond, within hours, to a change made on any given site. I.e. youtube-dl stopped working? No problem, file an issue, wait a day, solved. That's funny. You must have not been around on the repo for the last six to eight months. It was practically abandoned, with several broken extractors not being addressed, and essential PRs being ignored for months or even years. See this: https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3AcSWoRbWfKaUJ%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fytdl-org%2Fyoutube-dl%2Fissues%2F26462 https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://webcache.googleusercon... As an example, take the tiktok extractor, which was (and is still) broken for almost a year without even being acknowledged by the maintainers: https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ae7hVl_JMlVIJ%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fytdl-org%2Fyoutube-dl%2Fissues%2F23264%3FBADWAYBACKMACHINE https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://webcache.googleusercon... https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3ALzFSU8BXMNkJ%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fytdl-org%2Fyoutube-dl%2Fissues%2F20809+&cd=5 https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://webcache.googleusercon... https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3AjZu_3AOXOP4J%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fytdl-org%2Fyoutube-dl%2Fissues%2F26094%3Fcb47 https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://webcache.googleusercon...

ninjaoxygen 6y ago
I think that is a pretty normal OSS situation though; there's a fairly small overlap between who care enough to play in the arms race for Tiktok videos and people who want to spend their time updating youtube-dl. Other sites were regularly updated, so it's just down to what individual maintainers have time and inclination for. Tiktok are pretty active in that arms race, I can only suppose most maintainers feel it's not worth a constant battle for Tiktok content.
- llacb47 6y ago
  There is no "arms race", because the maintainers made no commits to the tiktok extractor for the past 8 months AFAIK. And twitch, a fairly important site, was similarly broken for three months due to maintainers' inactivity: https://web.archive.org/web/20201002044125/https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/pull/25606 https://web.archive.org/web/20201002044125/https://github.co...
  - jlgaddis 6y ago
    > ... twitch ... was similarly broken for three months due to maintainers' inactivity: The sense of entitlement here is absolutely unbelievable. -- I apologize if anyone is put off by this but I want to make sure that I perfectly clear: Developers and maintainers of open-source software DON'T OWE YOU A GOD-DAMNED THING.
    - Spare_account 6y ago
      Your tone is unnecessary; Apologising before breaking the conduct rules doesn't excuse the infraction. You're likely to get flagged and certainly aren't helping your 'side' of the argument. That said, you seem offended that someone might point out that an OSS product lacked timely updates. I don't understand your position, would you mind expanding on it?
    - Flowsion 6y ago
      How is this entitlement? They are responding to a claim: >The value of youtube-dl wasn't the software. It was the community. It was the ability to respond, within hours, to a change made on any given site. I.e. youtube-dl stopped working? No problem, file an issue, wait a day, solved. I don't think you need to preach to HN the value open-source maintainers provide. I think it's fair to assume most people on HN understand this.

ninjaoxygen 6y ago

I think that is a pretty normal OSS situation though; there's a fairly small overlap between who care enough to play in the arms race for Tiktok videos and people who want to spend their time updating youtube-dl. Other sites were regularly updated, so it's just down to what individual maintainers have time and inclination for. Tiktok are pretty active in that arms race, I can only suppose most maintainers feel it's not worth a constant battle for Tiktok content.

llacb47 6y ago
There is no "arms race", because the maintainers made no commits to the tiktok extractor for the past 8 months AFAIK. And twitch, a fairly important site, was similarly broken for three months due to maintainers' inactivity: https://web.archive.org/web/20201002044125/https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/pull/25606 https://web.archive.org/web/20201002044125/https://github.co...
- jlgaddis 6y ago
  > ... twitch ... was similarly broken for three months due to maintainers' inactivity: The sense of entitlement here is absolutely unbelievable. -- I apologize if anyone is put off by this but I want to make sure that I perfectly clear: Developers and maintainers of open-source software DON'T OWE YOU A GOD-DAMNED THING.
  - Spare_account 6y ago
    Your tone is unnecessary; Apologising before breaking the conduct rules doesn't excuse the infraction. You're likely to get flagged and certainly aren't helping your 'side' of the argument. That said, you seem offended that someone might point out that an OSS product lacked timely updates. I don't understand your position, would you mind expanding on it?
  - Flowsion 6y ago
    How is this entitlement? They are responding to a claim: >The value of youtube-dl wasn't the software. It was the community. It was the ability to respond, within hours, to a change made on any given site. I.e. youtube-dl stopped working? No problem, file an issue, wait a day, solved. I don't think you need to preach to HN the value open-source maintainers provide. I think it's fair to assume most people on HN understand this.