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> If someone doesn't want to owe users anything, don't make project open source or make it clear "don't use this or fork for yourself, please" in read-me or som

by palata 3y ago

> If someone doesn't want to owe users anything, don't make project open source or make it clear "don't use this or fork for yourself, please" in read-me or something. That's where I believe you misunderstand open source, and that's the point of the article. Because I make my project open source does not imply anything other than the terms of the licence. Of course it's okay to report a bug (it's even nice) or to open a PR. But asking "is this maintained?" as part of the decision process before depending on a project just shows some misunderstanding about how open source works, IMHO.

saurik 3y ago
You plucked that quote from the comment you replied to but carefully didn't include the critical lead in: "If maintainer was actively building community and advocating use of his project". All the replies are hung up nitpicking some later wording which wasn't the point. Having the standard website/readme with a bunch of claims about how awesome your software is as a way to entice other developers to get excited by it, start using it, and even (gasp) depend on it absolutely implies something more than the mere terms of the license. Put elsewise: if you don't want the expectation of feeding people, haven't put any thought into how you will actually make that happen, and are just going to get defensive when people are annoyed at how you don't own a grill, you have no business inviting everyone to a BBQ. https://imgur.com/a/chris-pratt-barbecue-gDL2O https://imgur.com/a/chris-pratt-barbecue-gDL2O https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/3v8svx/barbecue_at_chris_pratts/ https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/3v8svx/barbecue_at_c...
- palata 3y ago
  > but carefully didn't include the critical lead in Because it's irrelevant to my point. My point being that if you don't sign a contract with me where I commit to do something for you, then I don't owe you anything. If you misunderstand open source and have wrong expectations because of it, then you will get frustrated. My point is that it is important for you to understand that open source just means that the author shares something for free, no strings attached. Maybe the maintainer is super responsive today, and that's great. But you have to know that they may stop responding tomorrow. And you should be ready to handle that if you depend on their project for something important.

by palata 3y ago

saurik 3y ago

You plucked that quote from the comment you replied to but carefully didn't include the critical lead in: "If maintainer was actively building community and advocating use of his project". All the replies are hung up nitpicking some later wording which wasn't the point. Having the standard website/readme with a bunch of claims about how awesome your software is as a way to entice other developers to get excited by it, start using it, and even (gasp) depend on it absolutely implies something more than the mere terms of the license. Put elsewise: if you don't want the expectation of feeding people, haven't put any thought into how you will actually make that happen, and are just going to get defensive when people are annoyed at how you don't own a grill, you have no business inviting everyone to a BBQ. https://imgur.com/a/chris-pratt-barbecue-gDL2O https://imgur.com/a/chris-pratt-barbecue-gDL2O https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/3v8svx/barbecue_at_chris_pratts/ https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/3v8svx/barbecue_at_c...

palata 3y ago
> but carefully didn't include the critical lead in Because it's irrelevant to my point. My point being that if you don't sign a contract with me where I commit to do something for you, then I don't owe you anything. If you misunderstand open source and have wrong expectations because of it, then you will get frustrated. My point is that it is important for you to understand that open source just means that the author shares something for free, no strings attached. Maybe the maintainer is super responsive today, and that's great. But you have to know that they may stop responding tomorrow. And you should be ready to handle that if you depend on their project for something important.