Couldn't agree more. I don't think I will ever publish another open-source project without making it painfully clear that it is my gift to the world and comes with no support whatsoever. No issue tracker, no accepted pull requests. If it's useful and you're interested in making it better, I'm more than happy for you to fork.
Running a moderately popular open-source project wasn't the only thing that burned me out, but it sure didn't help.
Call me selfish or old-fashioned, but my approach to open source software I make is just to "throw it out there".
And what I mean by that is unless one of my projects is going to go big and have enough users to generate revenue either from sponsorships or something like Patreon - I'm making open source software for me, myself and I. So you can have my source code and some instructions about how to get it running, but don't expect me to also be your guide or tech support. My intention in throwing it out there is to help out people who have the same exact issue as I do and are willing to get it working, not to be a donor for all the help vampires around.
You don't owe anyone support. If you want to work in the code, do that. If you find value in reading / answering the issues sometimes, do that. If someone annoys you, ignore or block them.
If the whole project bores you now, move on.
Never feel responsible to those who might like to demand your attention
What I meant between the lines is that there are a lot of entitled people everywhere, FOSS users are just an example of it, and one needs to be ready for them whenever setting up for a public-facing endeavor, be it an OSS project or a shop or whatever. Just not let that hit you with low defenses.
I've been an OSS project maintainer myself, and realized that one must be ready to deal with people and their behaviors.
If I could give an actionable tip to the author and all FOSS maintainers (or soon to be) is to add a README section "This project is a garden", and copy it from Valetudo:
The author complains about how many (probably entitled) users he started having to support, but deeply inside that was not a problem of being an Open Source maintainer as much as a problem of not being prepared to deal with the social side and the normal people's behavior.
There's conflict everywhere. If you gave free umbrellas on the street and some of them were broken, for sure part of those people would turn around and request a good one, to which one needs to be prepared to have an answer, it can be "yeah sorry here you are" or "well it was free, be happy you got something at all"
The issue isn't socially interacting with any of the users, I wish that was the major pain point.
The issue is having to handle e-mails, issues, feature requests, code-reviewing, continuous development, acquiring new users (otherwise project will stale) - all of this after a long day of work and balancing other important issues "non work related".
I feel you! That's why the edit I added to the top of he message (which is what I should have said from the beginning).
Check the Valetudo's project Readme and website, youl'll notice an attitude that I truly believe is the perfect mindset for exposing oneself to the world like a project maintainer does.
Hopefully one day you get the tickle and feel like keeping up working on the project again :) or any other kind of different project that you might feel.
Yeah I realize. And they're right, it can become unbearable if the project gets a lot of traction. That's why a firm attitude and properly setting expectations must be top priorities. I can only comment on the fact that this always happens and is somewhat predictable that will continue happening because people are people.
Where are you seeing complaints, all I see is the opposite.
> While providing direct support to people is one of the most valuable rewards, combining that with lack of time, support on GitHub issues, continuing development and maintaining enjoyment while working on the project is hard, really hard.
He is just saying it’s a lot of work.
> And this is where I felt like I shoot myself in the foot. I’ve built something valuable to people, decided to open-source it and now I’ve to carry the responsibilities of maintaining an open-source project. I’ve always wanted to reach this stage, and now I sort of regret it, because it’s really hard to balance maintenance with other things in life. I mean maybe I’m getting too old, but I just feel so tired after work, and I don’t feel like having to maintain an open-source project while being tired.
Poor dudes just tired.
FWIW complaining about a free umbrella likely points toward being entitled and unsocialized. Those traits typically make a person unbearable to others.
> FWIW complaining about a free umbrella likely points toward being entitled and unsocialized. Those traits typically make a person unbearable to others.
Couldn't agree more. I don't think I will ever publish another open-source project without making it painfully clear that it is my gift to the world and comes with no support whatsoever. No issue tracker, no accepted pull requests. If it's useful and you're interested in making it better, I'm more than happy for you to fork.
Running a moderately popular open-source project wasn't the only thing that burned me out, but it sure didn't help.
Call me selfish or old-fashioned, but my approach to open source software I make is just to "throw it out there". And what I mean by that is unless one of my projects is going to go big and have enough users to generate revenue either from sponsorships or something like Patreon - I'm making open source software for me, myself and I. So you can have my source code and some instructions about how to get it running, but don't expect me to also be your guide or tech support. My intention in throwing it out there is to help out people who have the same exact issue as I do and are willing to get it working, not to be a donor for all the help vampires around.
You don't owe anyone support. If you want to work in the code, do that. If you find value in reading / answering the issues sometimes, do that. If someone annoys you, ignore or block them.
If the whole project bores you now, move on.
Never feel responsible to those who might like to demand your attention
Who says he has to maintain it? It’s open source… 100% free for anyone else to start maintaining it.
---- BEGIN EDIT
What I meant between the lines is that there are a lot of entitled people everywhere, FOSS users are just an example of it, and one needs to be ready for them whenever setting up for a public-facing endeavor, be it an OSS project or a shop or whatever. Just not let that hit you with low defenses.
I've been an OSS project maintainer myself, and realized that one must be ready to deal with people and their behaviors.
If I could give an actionable tip to the author and all FOSS maintainers (or soon to be) is to add a README section "This project is a garden", and copy it from Valetudo:
https://github.com/Hypfer/Valetudo?tab=readme-ov-file#valetu...
---- END EDIT
The author complains about how many (probably entitled) users he started having to support, but deeply inside that was not a problem of being an Open Source maintainer as much as a problem of not being prepared to deal with the social side and the normal people's behavior.
There's conflict everywhere. If you gave free umbrellas on the street and some of them were broken, for sure part of those people would turn around and request a good one, to which one needs to be prepared to have an answer, it can be "yeah sorry here you are" or "well it was free, be happy you got something at all"
Hi, author here
The issue isn't socially interacting with any of the users, I wish that was the major pain point. The issue is having to handle e-mails, issues, feature requests, code-reviewing, continuous development, acquiring new users (otherwise project will stale) - all of this after a long day of work and balancing other important issues "non work related".
I feel you! That's why the edit I added to the top of he message (which is what I should have said from the beginning).
Check the Valetudo's project Readme and website, youl'll notice an attitude that I truly believe is the perfect mindset for exposing oneself to the world like a project maintainer does.
Hopefully one day you get the tickle and feel like keeping up working on the project again :) or any other kind of different project that you might feel.
Good luck and thanks for sharing zero-monitor!
The author is not complaining about the users (except the ai bots) but about his own decision to propose an open source software to the community
Yeah I realize. And they're right, it can become unbearable if the project gets a lot of traction. That's why a firm attitude and properly setting expectations must be top priorities. I can only comment on the fact that this always happens and is somewhat predictable that will continue happening because people are people.
Where are you seeing complaints, all I see is the opposite.
> While providing direct support to people is one of the most valuable rewards, combining that with lack of time, support on GitHub issues, continuing development and maintaining enjoyment while working on the project is hard, really hard.
He is just saying it’s a lot of work.
> And this is where I felt like I shoot myself in the foot. I’ve built something valuable to people, decided to open-source it and now I’ve to carry the responsibilities of maintaining an open-source project. I’ve always wanted to reach this stage, and now I sort of regret it, because it’s really hard to balance maintenance with other things in life. I mean maybe I’m getting too old, but I just feel so tired after work, and I don’t feel like having to maintain an open-source project while being tired.
Poor dudes just tired.
FWIW complaining about a free umbrella likely points toward being entitled and unsocialized. Those traits typically make a person unbearable to others.
> FWIW complaining about a free umbrella likely points toward being entitled and unsocialized. Those traits typically make a person unbearable to others.
Did you mean umbrelleable to others?
Hah sorry I couldn't resist :)
“Umbrellable” makes me miss my nieces and nephews. I’m getting old!