8 ms·

The biggest reason to make useless stuff instead of useful stuff is to avoid harassment. If you have something useful on GitHub then entitled users will come ou

The biggest reason to make useless stuff instead of useful stuff is to avoid harassment. If you have something useful on GitHub then entitled users will come out of the woodwork to request features, report "bugs" (read: the user is doing something wrong), or otherwise expect free work out of you.

dheera 5y ago
Let them know they are free to make a pull request? I don't see this as a reason to specifically avoid useful stuff.
- swiftcoder 5y ago
  That's precisely the point. They aren't free to make a pull request. A pull request puts a time demand on the project owner to review and merge the patch. What they are free to do is fork the project, and do whatever the hell they want to in the fork.
  - ratww 5y ago
    Yep. It's a cathedral rather than a bazaar [1]. A very small cathedral, but still one. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cathedral_and_the_Bazaar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cathedral_and_the_Bazaar
toast0 5y ago
I haven't gotten any feedback on my github stuff (which isn't quite useless, just not useful to many), but it's pretty easy to ignore feedback in general, and it's not too hard to turn off issues; not sure if you can turn off pull requests though.
watwut 5y ago
Wasn't really my experience. Besides, github have tons of useful smaller projects that either don't have any issues filed by strangers or have them while author happily ignores those.You have make something pretty big to have big enough community for it to cause issues. And if that really bothers you, you can turn off issues in github.
nicbou 5y ago
Offer them a refund
- jraph 5y ago
  That is an excellent idea. I hope I'll never have to do that (haven't had to deal with this kind of thing so far), but I'll definitely try this should an entitled user show up in the future.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- valbaca 5y ago
  Or use the trick from Java Puzzlers (which may have borrowed it from another source): Feel free to mail us your feedback written in pencil on a $20 bill.
  - scottlamb 5y ago
    > which may have borrowed it from another source Probably Car Talk. Iirc they instructed that puzzler answers be written on the back of a $20 bill also. It was a great radio show!
- epmaybe 5y ago
  I laughed at this one, thank you for that
yannoninator 5y ago
> If you have something useful on GitHub... make the repo private or close contributions then? if it's going to be useless and only be used by yourself, you might as well blog about it and move onto the next useless project. hell, there may be no need to place it on github for these sort of projects.
- david_allison 5y ago
  Someone might find value in it. An unmaintained[0] badge feels like a better solution compared to not publishing it [0] https://github.com/potch/unmaintained.tech https://github.com/potch/unmaintained.tech
- ipaddr 5y ago
  I would suggest you may not be the right person to use code in these repos. For someone like me sometimes I'm looking for a small sample of code that fits a pattern. I could careless about the project. Sometimes you need an odd piece. Saying his code doesn't belong on github tells me you might not belong on github.
  - yannoninator 5y ago
    > Saying his code doesn't belong on github tells me you might not belong on github. you're right, most of these 'unpolished' projects can go on gitlab, bitbucket or another git hosting solution instead.
- ratww 5y ago
  Terrible advice from an educational perspective. I use Github all the time to find code samples, especially for 3D stuff, shaders, audio, emulation, demoscene... It's more common to find solutions to my problems in zero-star projects than in big ones. Lots of people star my code-as-art experiments too, and from the forks I can see they find educational value in it. Not everything in the world has to fit perfectly into some preconceived mold. Heck, in that case, the most interesting/educational things are trying to avoid that.
  - 5y ago
bombcar 5y ago
This is one of the downsides of programming-as-a-art: if you create paintings you may get feedback and requests for more (or less) - but you’re unlikely to get bug reports.
- skrebbel 5y ago
  Try making actual art with programming, eg demoscene or quirky twitter bots or programs that automously paint paintings, and you'll get way fewer bug reports.
djoldman 5y ago
I wonder why people are so annoyed or upset by this. If you don't want to support an arch/language/platform, etc. just say so in the readme (all arch/languages/platforms besides ____ are unsupported. People expecting things are pretty par for the course on the internet... Just be firm and curt. Close the issues quickly and refer to them if reopened.
- wizzwizz4 5y ago
  People are annoyed because when your project gets big enough (or if you're just unlucky), that doesn't stop them.
  - djoldman 5y ago
    Is it possible to ban users from posting issues on GitHub to your project?
    - benrbray 5y ago
      You can turn off the "issues" tab in your GitHub repository via Repo Settings > Options > Features > Issues.
      - tonyedgecombe 5y ago
        Then they go and search for your email address in your commits. Some of these people are really persistent.
    - teraflop 5y ago
      If individual users are being persistent and causing problems, you can ban them. But if your problem is caused by a large number of different users, each coming across the project for the first time and creating annoying issues/PRs, banning doesn't help.
- austhrow743 5y ago
  Or just ignore them. Don't engage with the message either physically as in typing a response, or even just mentally. Skim and move on. That people send unwanted messages on the internet is the most common complaint I see regarding the internet that I just cant empathise with at all. I just really dont get it. Possibly has something to do with my first couple years online involving 4chan.
salmo 5y ago
My biggest reason is that I don’t have to finish. When I get bored with it, I move on. I used to put pressure on myself to “finish” and would often miss and feel guilty. Not just computer projects, but electronics, learning musical instruments, etc. Then I realized I was making my hobbies work and doing it badly. Real work (where I have to finish) got in the way of my hobbies. Hobbies are supposed to be fun, relaxing, and rewarding. What was I doing? I gave up the pressure and it was liberating. I pick up the guitar for a couple months, then get lost in trying to make analog circuits. I tinker in the garden then teach myself enough CAD to do a small woodworking project. I started sewing masks and tote bags then set it aside. I fish a bunch in the spring and fall. Then, I’ll revisit them later when the muse hits and don’t feel like I wasted money. Now my only goals are to have some fun, relax, and learn something new. I really only program for fun in languages I don’t know or platforms I haven’t played with. I learn by picking up a project that scratches an itch. Sometimes those feed back into my work (eg Go, Kotlin), but most don’t (various LISPs, low level C). My issues are exacerbated by my ADHD, but I would recommend the approach to anyone with a steady job they enjoy. That and not using TV/movies as a hobby. There’s just so much cool stuff to explore.
- 8fGTBjZxBcHq 5y ago
  Yeah learning things is so fun, and also so is just having a bunch of weird skills you're competent or at least knowledgeable at. I won't post my list of accumulated learnings because it's about as good a personal identifier as my SSN. But it's similarly scattered as yours and I love them all even the ones I haven't used in years. It's really become the way I orient my life. What bizarre or useful thing I'll get into next is always the big question now.
  - salmo 5y ago
    :). Yeah, it’s a running joke at work that I can take any devolved meeting and turn it into a lecture on some random topic.
dennis_moore 5y ago
I would image that satisfaction I'd get from having people actually use my code would greatly outweigh the inconvenience of being pestered about new features.
- jcfields 5y ago
  There’s definitely something uniquely satisfying about knowing that code you wrote is saving other people time or helping them create things. The beautiful thing about programming is you can solve a problem once for yourself and also end up end up solving it forever for everybody.
- jonnycomputer 5y ago
  I'd imagine that it is satisfying, yes. But I think you may be underestimating how little other people will value your time in asking for help using that software. I have a colleague that maintains a popular open source project, and he spends a ridiculous amount of time answering questions about problems they're having, and very often those problems don't have anything to do with the software he's written, but the competence of the questioner. I had been considering developing a package, perhaps paid for with grant money, but the long term commitment that comes with it has scared me off.

dheera 5y ago

Let them know they are free to make a pull request? I don't see this as a reason to specifically avoid useful stuff.

swiftcoder 5y ago
That's precisely the point. They aren't free to make a pull request. A pull request puts a time demand on the project owner to review and merge the patch. What they are free to do is fork the project, and do whatever the hell they want to in the fork.
- ratww 5y ago
  Yep. It's a cathedral rather than a bazaar [1]. A very small cathedral, but still one. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cathedral_and_the_Bazaar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cathedral_and_the_Bazaar

toast0 5y ago

I haven't gotten any feedback on my github stuff (which isn't quite useless, just not useful to many), but it's pretty easy to ignore feedback in general, and it's not too hard to turn off issues; not sure if you can turn off pull requests though.

watwut 5y ago

Wasn't really my experience. Besides, github have tons of useful smaller projects that either don't have any issues filed by strangers or have them while author happily ignores those.You have make something pretty big to have big enough community for it to cause issues. And if that really bothers you, you can turn off issues in github.

nicbou 5y ago

Offer them a refund

jraph 5y ago
That is an excellent idea. I hope I'll never have to do that (haven't had to deal with this kind of thing so far), but I'll definitely try this should an entitled user show up in the future.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
valbaca 5y ago
Or use the trick from Java Puzzlers (which may have borrowed it from another source): Feel free to mail us your feedback written in pencil on a $20 bill.
- scottlamb 5y ago
  > which may have borrowed it from another source Probably Car Talk. Iirc they instructed that puzzler answers be written on the back of a $20 bill also. It was a great radio show!
epmaybe 5y ago
I laughed at this one, thank you for that

yannoninator 5y ago

> If you have something useful on GitHub... make the repo private or close contributions then? if it's going to be useless and only be used by yourself, you might as well blog about it and move onto the next useless project. hell, there may be no need to place it on github for these sort of projects.

david_allison 5y ago
Someone might find value in it. An unmaintained[0] badge feels like a better solution compared to not publishing it [0] https://github.com/potch/unmaintained.tech https://github.com/potch/unmaintained.tech
ipaddr 5y ago
I would suggest you may not be the right person to use code in these repos. For someone like me sometimes I'm looking for a small sample of code that fits a pattern. I could careless about the project. Sometimes you need an odd piece. Saying his code doesn't belong on github tells me you might not belong on github.
- yannoninator 5y ago
  > Saying his code doesn't belong on github tells me you might not belong on github. you're right, most of these 'unpolished' projects can go on gitlab, bitbucket or another git hosting solution instead.
ratww 5y ago
Terrible advice from an educational perspective. I use Github all the time to find code samples, especially for 3D stuff, shaders, audio, emulation, demoscene... It's more common to find solutions to my problems in zero-star projects than in big ones. Lots of people star my code-as-art experiments too, and from the forks I can see they find educational value in it. Not everything in the world has to fit perfectly into some preconceived mold. Heck, in that case, the most interesting/educational things are trying to avoid that.
- 5y ago

bombcar 5y ago

This is one of the downsides of programming-as-a-art: if you create paintings you may get feedback and requests for more (or less) - but you’re unlikely to get bug reports.

skrebbel 5y ago
Try making actual art with programming, eg demoscene or quirky twitter bots or programs that automously paint paintings, and you'll get way fewer bug reports.

djoldman 5y ago

I wonder why people are so annoyed or upset by this. If you don't want to support an arch/language/platform, etc. just say so in the readme (all arch/languages/platforms besides ____ are unsupported. People expecting things are pretty par for the course on the internet... Just be firm and curt. Close the issues quickly and refer to them if reopened.

wizzwizz4 5y ago
People are annoyed because when your project gets big enough (or if you're just unlucky), that doesn't stop them.
- djoldman 5y ago
  Is it possible to ban users from posting issues on GitHub to your project?
  - benrbray 5y ago
    You can turn off the "issues" tab in your GitHub repository via Repo Settings > Options > Features > Issues.
    - tonyedgecombe 5y ago
      Then they go and search for your email address in your commits. Some of these people are really persistent.
  - teraflop 5y ago
    If individual users are being persistent and causing problems, you can ban them. But if your problem is caused by a large number of different users, each coming across the project for the first time and creating annoying issues/PRs, banning doesn't help.
austhrow743 5y ago
Or just ignore them. Don't engage with the message either physically as in typing a response, or even just mentally. Skim and move on. That people send unwanted messages on the internet is the most common complaint I see regarding the internet that I just cant empathise with at all. I just really dont get it. Possibly has something to do with my first couple years online involving 4chan.

salmo 5y ago

My biggest reason is that I don’t have to finish. When I get bored with it, I move on. I used to put pressure on myself to “finish” and would often miss and feel guilty. Not just computer projects, but electronics, learning musical instruments, etc. Then I realized I was making my hobbies work and doing it badly. Real work (where I have to finish) got in the way of my hobbies. Hobbies are supposed to be fun, relaxing, and rewarding. What was I doing? I gave up the pressure and it was liberating. I pick up the guitar for a couple months, then get lost in trying to make analog circuits. I tinker in the garden then teach myself enough CAD to do a small woodworking project. I started sewing masks and tote bags then set it aside. I fish a bunch in the spring and fall. Then, I’ll revisit them later when the muse hits and don’t feel like I wasted money. Now my only goals are to have some fun, relax, and learn something new. I really only program for fun in languages I don’t know or platforms I haven’t played with. I learn by picking up a project that scratches an itch. Sometimes those feed back into my work (eg Go, Kotlin), but most don’t (various LISPs, low level C). My issues are exacerbated by my ADHD, but I would recommend the approach to anyone with a steady job they enjoy. That and not using TV/movies as a hobby. There’s just so much cool stuff to explore.

8fGTBjZxBcHq 5y ago
Yeah learning things is so fun, and also so is just having a bunch of weird skills you're competent or at least knowledgeable at. I won't post my list of accumulated learnings because it's about as good a personal identifier as my SSN. But it's similarly scattered as yours and I love them all even the ones I haven't used in years. It's really become the way I orient my life. What bizarre or useful thing I'll get into next is always the big question now.
- salmo 5y ago
  :). Yeah, it’s a running joke at work that I can take any devolved meeting and turn it into a lecture on some random topic.

dennis_moore 5y ago

I would image that satisfaction I'd get from having people actually use my code would greatly outweigh the inconvenience of being pestered about new features.

jcfields 5y ago
There’s definitely something uniquely satisfying about knowing that code you wrote is saving other people time or helping them create things. The beautiful thing about programming is you can solve a problem once for yourself and also end up end up solving it forever for everybody.
jonnycomputer 5y ago
I'd imagine that it is satisfying, yes. But I think you may be underestimating how little other people will value your time in asking for help using that software. I have a colleague that maintains a popular open source project, and he spends a ridiculous amount of time answering questions about problems they're having, and very often those problems don't have anything to do with the software he's written, but the competence of the questioner. I had been considering developing a package, perhaps paid for with grant money, but the long term commitment that comes with it has scared me off.