How much time per month should an unpaid volunteer maintainer dedicate to an Open Source project?

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@preinheimer @joergi so, there's no minimum amount of time where you'd worry that the project is unmaintained or under-maintained?

[malwareminigun@infosec.exchange]

@evan A: What *they* want to.

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@tony So, you're happy using unmaintained or under-maintained software?

There's no minimum amount of time you expect maintainers to put in -- even on security issues, dependency or platform EOL, all that stuff?

You're going to use it regardless?

[larsmb@mastodon.online]

@evan (x) however much they feel like it

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@malwareminigun so, you'll keep using the software, no matter if there are outstanding security alerts, dependency EOL, untriaged issues? Just as long as the maintainers are happy?

[troglobit@fosstodon.org]

@joergi exactly this @evan why phrase the question in such a black and white perspective? I’ve been an open source and free software maintainer and contributor since the late 1990’s and I strongly oppose anyone telling what to do and not to do!

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@larsmb and you'll keep using their unmaintained software, full of known security bugs, regardless?

[tony@toot.hoyle.me.uk]

@evan They're unpaid volunteers, not employees.

Whether I'll continue to use unmaintained software depends on whether it still works for me (or whether I can fork it and fix issues, but that's not an option for many). Mostly I'll find an alternative, of which there are usually many.

[troglobit@fosstodon.org]

@evan @preinheimer @joergi depends quite a lot no the project. There are no fixed rules why do you want to impose them?

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@troglobit @joergi would you continue to use software that has unpatched security alerts?

[malwareminigun@infosec.exchange]

@evan You didn't say "what are your conditions to use software", you said "how many unpaid volunteer hours should there be". There is software with those problems with thousands of hours of investment, there is also software without those issues with very little.

I don't "owe" the project usage, and the maintainers don't "owe" the project maintenance hours.

[larsmb@mastodon.online]

@evan That's ... a different question? They've got no obligations to me.

I could maintain it or contribute to it myself, pick something else, pay someone ...

But there's no "should".

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@troglobit @preinheimer @joergi because I like thinking about hard topics. You don't have to, though!

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@tony so, how much time do you think it takes for maintainers to keep software in a state where it still works for you?

[troglobit@fosstodon.org]

@evan @joergi depends on how I use it and what the sheets are, if they are relevant to my use case. Why are you going down this road, what’s your agenda? Why the tone in your replies?

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@larsmb

https://evanp.me/pollfaq#should

[troglobit@fosstodon.org]

@evan you’re going about it the wrong way, which should be apparent by the responses you get. Chill or be honest and upfront about your agenda. You’re just making people feel bad about their life choices and you are not helping.

[larsmb@mastodon.online]

@evan @tony That's yet another question though?

How much effort a given piece of software requires to stay functional in a changing world is very varied.

I have a tiny C mail delivery agent I wrote for myself in 1997 and last touched in 1998. It's still working perfectly fine locally. (I had to recompile it once.)

Compare with a project like Home Assistant, where I really couldn't guess how much effort that must be.

I'd expect a few hours per month for an average project.

[joergi@chaos.social]

@evan
for me, the main problem on many (smaller) open-source projects is, that there is only ONE maintainer.
there should be a team.

the bigger the project, the more user it uses, the better should be the support.
And: good support needs normally a team.

@troglobit

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@shtrom so, if it's not because they owe somebody something, why do volunteer maintainers do the work in the first place? And if they do have a goal, how much time do they have to put in to reach it? Are there different amounts of time for different goals?