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But why upload it to Github or somewhere similar, do the marketing(a README that often promises something like enterprise ready Atomic transactions) and licensi
by mrtksn 5y ago
But why upload it to Github or somewhere similar, do the marketing(a README that often promises something like enterprise ready Atomic transactions) and licensing?
If the work was to fulfil your own needs it would have been a private repo or a folder in your drive.
The moment you publish it, a social contract is established similar to creators of other free work like youtube videos etc. You receive cudos and fame, they receive a tool, entertainment, knowledge etc. When you fail your part of the contract, people can be very mean as the are mean on a Youtube vide that they don't like.
- andrewzah 5y agoNo. No. No. There is no such thing as this "social contract". I publish software on github with MIT or (A)GPL licenses for various reasons: * In case someone else has the same issue I did * In case someone is working on something similar and wants to learn from my code * As an external backup in addition to my hard drive / private git repo / etc. * Because I can. (deal with it.) There is NO expectation or "contract" or anything. People can open issues or politely request things, but getting upset or pushy over F/OSS released on someone else's own terms is just entitlement.
- mrtksn 5y agoI'm sorry but there's a social contract. It's implicit, the moment you participate in a society the expectations from you and obligations towards you begin. Even if someone asks you the directions to the gas station, you are expected not to deceive them and give them the best instructions to you your ability and they are expected to show some appreciation for helping out the society. You will face backslash if you don't help a fellow human or deceive them despite the fact that you are not receiving direct payment for your act. Imagine you put a sign that says "The mall is in this way" and the sign is not entirely correct. It was a free sign, no one contracted you to put that sign but if it happens that your sign wastes someones time you will receive negative feedback and probably requests to correct your sign.
- White_Wolf 5y agoA social contract takes place when everyone contributes. If one does the work and others do the demands... it's not a "collaboration", which is a pre-requisite for a social contract. You could argue there is a social contract between the repo maintainer and various submitters. Not so much between the repo owner and users/consumers.
- andrewzah 5y agoI'm not talking about society in general. I'm talking about random F/OSS projects on github. There is zero expectation when looking at someone's project from afar.
- webmaven 5y ago> There is zero expectation when looking at someone's project from afar. Let's say I release some code that is isn't fit for purpose. For example, it corrupts user data 5% of the time. The code has a README that doesn't mention the issue, and I close all issues that refer to the problem. I also reject any PRs that try to fix it, and so on. I don't, however, disable issues or say the code is unmaintained, so there is a steady stream of people whose data gets corrupted when they download and use my code. Since you don't seem to like the term "social contract", would you at least admit that I am violating a few norms and acting like an asshole?
- pjmlp 5y agoYou are free to fork it, fix the corruption issue and uphold the social contract of your fork.
- webmaven 5y ago> You are free to fork it, fix the corruption issue and uphold the social contract of your fork. The freedom to fork (for any reason) is orthogonal to the question of whether the maintainer is being an asshole or not. Of course, people are also free to be assholes (for any reason). But it shouldn't be controversial to say "don't be an asshole".