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I agree with sjs382 - I don't think it's your place to be spamming repos telling them to add a licence.

by mailslut 11y ago

karangoeluw 11y ago
Ok. Who's is it then?
- mathgeek 11y ago
  Let me start out by saying that I think opening an issue isn't all that spammy to me. It's certainly better than emailing directly, although it still generates an email, so it's still "kinda spammy" IMHO. From a philosophical standpoint, I'd say it's no one's place to be automated cold calling (cold issuing?) other developers to explicitly license their software. If there is no explicit license, the implicit copyright still exists. GitHub is really the only party that would have an understandable role in these kinds of warnings/requests. Here's a good SX post on the topic: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/a/148165 http://programmers.stackexchange.com/a/148165
- sjs382 11y ago
  Nobody's. Feel free to ask individual repos that you may want to use code from, but unsolicited, automated messaging like this is spam.
  - mailslut 11y ago
    I agree - it's the automated aspect of it that I feel uncomfortable with.
  - camhenlin 11y ago
    Yeah totally. Pretty much every time I have a code idea, I create a new github repo. If someone went through and did pull requests on every single one of those to add a license, it would probably do nothing but piss me off and convince me to spend time figuring out how to report the account. That being said if an actual individual developer sent me a pull request/email/tweet/whatever asking for a license, I can promise you I'd be sitting there on my phone scrambling to get a license on there. If GitHub wanted all the repos on GitHub to have licenses, they would require it, or create a policy where all repos with no licenses automatically meet a minimum licensing requirement.
    - karangoeluw 11y ago
      > did pull requests Except this bot doesn't create PR's.
- mailslut 11y ago
  Why does it have to be anybody's?
- thebigmunch 11y ago
  If it's anybody's job, it's a user of the project who requires/desires a license for some reason. Going back to other comments, many people store dotfiles on GitHub which aren't likely to have many stars and which would be entirely reasonable to not have a license for. Moreover, if this bot ever opened an issue on one of my repos for this, I'd flat-out report you to GitHub for harassment if they didn't already beat me to it. If you want to create a website calling for people to add licenses to their projects and start a movement that way, great. Just tell me where to sign up for the cause. But this is just plain wrong.
  - karangoeluw 11y ago
    I don't think you really understand how this bot works.
    - thebigmunch 11y ago
      Really? What makes you say that besides the fact that I said something you don't like? Does it or does it not open unsolicited issues on GitHub repositories automatically? Seems to me like that's exactly what it does. If it does, this is the epitome of spam despite your claim otherwise. Your attitude and apparent disbelief that this would be unwanted and disliked by people is baffling to me. Just look at most comments so far that have felt the same way.
      - sjs382 11y ago
        I think he's referring to the fact that it won't create issues for dotfies repos, because (presumably) people won't be starring them. I'm not sure why he thinks it's okay to spam repos with stars, as long as he avoids the ones without stars though?
      - karangoeluw 11y ago
        > Does it or does it not open unsolicited issues on GitHub repositories automatically? Aren't all issues unsolicited? The point of creating an issue is to somehow improve the project. If the author overlooked adding a license file, the issue this bot creates will do that. If they really did not mean to add a license, they say so and close the issue. The bot never asks them more than once. As for people's response, every project owner that has received issues through the bot have either: - closed the issue without taking any action - added a license file and thanked the bot

I agree with sjs382 - I don't think it's your place to be spamming repos telling them to add a licence.

karangoeluw 11y ago

Ok. Who's is it then?

mathgeek 11y ago
Let me start out by saying that I think opening an issue isn't all that spammy to me. It's certainly better than emailing directly, although it still generates an email, so it's still "kinda spammy" IMHO. From a philosophical standpoint, I'd say it's no one's place to be automated cold calling (cold issuing?) other developers to explicitly license their software. If there is no explicit license, the implicit copyright still exists. GitHub is really the only party that would have an understandable role in these kinds of warnings/requests. Here's a good SX post on the topic: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/a/148165 http://programmers.stackexchange.com/a/148165
sjs382 11y ago
Nobody's. Feel free to ask individual repos that you may want to use code from, but unsolicited, automated messaging like this is spam.
- mailslut 11y ago
  I agree - it's the automated aspect of it that I feel uncomfortable with.
- camhenlin 11y ago
  Yeah totally. Pretty much every time I have a code idea, I create a new github repo. If someone went through and did pull requests on every single one of those to add a license, it would probably do nothing but piss me off and convince me to spend time figuring out how to report the account. That being said if an actual individual developer sent me a pull request/email/tweet/whatever asking for a license, I can promise you I'd be sitting there on my phone scrambling to get a license on there. If GitHub wanted all the repos on GitHub to have licenses, they would require it, or create a policy where all repos with no licenses automatically meet a minimum licensing requirement.
  - karangoeluw 11y ago
    > did pull requests Except this bot doesn't create PR's.
mailslut 11y ago
Why does it have to be anybody's?
thebigmunch 11y ago
If it's anybody's job, it's a user of the project who requires/desires a license for some reason. Going back to other comments, many people store dotfiles on GitHub which aren't likely to have many stars and which would be entirely reasonable to not have a license for. Moreover, if this bot ever opened an issue on one of my repos for this, I'd flat-out report you to GitHub for harassment if they didn't already beat me to it. If you want to create a website calling for people to add licenses to their projects and start a movement that way, great. Just tell me where to sign up for the cause. But this is just plain wrong.
- karangoeluw 11y ago
  I don't think you really understand how this bot works.
  - thebigmunch 11y ago
    Really? What makes you say that besides the fact that I said something you don't like? Does it or does it not open unsolicited issues on GitHub repositories automatically? Seems to me like that's exactly what it does. If it does, this is the epitome of spam despite your claim otherwise. Your attitude and apparent disbelief that this would be unwanted and disliked by people is baffling to me. Just look at most comments so far that have felt the same way.
    - sjs382 11y ago
      I think he's referring to the fact that it won't create issues for dotfies repos, because (presumably) people won't be starring them. I'm not sure why he thinks it's okay to spam repos with stars, as long as he avoids the ones without stars though?
    - karangoeluw 11y ago
      > Does it or does it not open unsolicited issues on GitHub repositories automatically? Aren't all issues unsolicited? The point of creating an issue is to somehow improve the project. If the author overlooked adding a license file, the issue this bot creates will do that. If they really did not mean to add a license, they say so and close the issue. The bot never asks them more than once. As for people's response, every project owner that has received issues through the bot have either: - closed the issue without taking any action - added a license file and thanked the bot