Post ATMCdAhDgRNi99QVE0 by talios@mastodon.nz
 (DIR) More posts by talios@mastodon.nz
 (DIR) Post #ATL9gtPHPeqcf89rZQ by lou@jawns.club
       2023-03-06T01:05:44Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       I read something like this and it's heartbreaking.This is literally the guy in that XKCD comic that maintains a tiny piece at the bottom of a huge JavaScript stack that would fall over if he just stopped maintaining his open source library for free one day.And because he's not a good self-promoter, whenever he tries to ask for money all he gets is hate and vitriol in response.Open source, man. I love it, but the tech industry sucks.https://github.com/zloirock/core-js/blob/master/docs/2023-02-14-so-whats-next.md
       
 (DIR) Post #ATMCdA12DHda2JgoTI by lou@jawns.club
       2023-03-06T17:58:41Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       To folks in my mentions pointing out (1) he's Russian, there's administrative barriers to paying him (2) he's Russian and has controversial/neutral takes on the war (3) he's gotta be a bad person because of the car accident and jail time, right? -- as reasons why people don't contribute:You might have a rationale for not liking the person, it doesn't change the fact that software developers and companies are happy using his software *anyway*.
       
 (DIR) Post #ATMCdAhDgRNi99QVE0 by talios@mastodon.nz
       2023-03-06T21:10:05Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @lou I wonder if the licence is also at play there - a brief look its a “do what you will with this, come one, come all, it’s free” seems to imply he didn’t want/care for anything.Maybe he should just change the licence - but then….  that wouldn’t stop anyone forking the version prior to such a change.
       
 (DIR) Post #ATMCdBD7lotzk6LyxE by talios@mastodon.nz
       2023-03-07T01:21:35Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @lispi314 @lou That would be a logistical nightmare tho - if the shins at the lowest layers - your application might be 10+ layers above that - that’s a mass licence infection that’d instantly see it forked I’m sure.
       
 (DIR) Post #ATMCdBfU4NaTA3cd9s by hochata@emacs.ch
       2023-03-07T01:38:50Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @talios @lispi314 @lou I remember reading that he would be happy if someone fork it, because then he wouldn't have to maintain it any longer, but it seems no one is willing because this particular library is very tedious to maintain.
       
 (DIR) Post #ATMCdBkRlvYbPRwatU by lou@jawns.club
       2023-03-06T18:04:29Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       To me, this individual and project is just illustrative of a larger pattern in open source in general.Users are happy to use things that are free. Users generally feel "everyone else" will take care of maintenance or sustainability.They are not, as a rule, making time to personally investigate maintainers to see if they're worthy of support or compensation. They just borrow the code and move on.
       
 (DIR) Post #ATMCdDLLqCfgMCDa3U by lou@jawns.club
       2023-03-06T18:07:30Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       If you end up not liking the person, and conclude "well, that's why this person isn't being funded!" That's a post-hoc rationalization.I think it's as likely that if the maintainer were to step back and hand control to someone else, the funding issues will remain the same.Besides the administrative barrier of being in Russia. That part you could solve. You would still need a person good at fundraising and making partnerships. (Lack of this ability is not a character flaw.)