How much time per month should an unpaid volunteer maintainer dedicate to an Open Source project?
Uncategorized
110
Posts
25
Posters
73
Views
-
This post is deleted!
@evan I'm not entitled to anyone else's time or attention.
If I felt a project was not sufficiently maintained for my use case I would simply not use it.
What that threshold is has more to do with complexity, known bugs, etc.
But if I download some code someone wrote and put online for free, the author has no obligation to me, nor do I think they should.
If it mattered so much to me, I could offer to help - or fork the project.
-
@evan I'm going to assume you mean the RFC 2119 definition of "should", in which case the poll is asking how much time is recommended for a maintainer to reserve in their schedule each month, and not how much time they are obligated to. I think reserving a day of slack in one's schedule to be able to spend 8 hours moving things along in the project as needed is probably a good idea, but different projects and different maintainers will have radically different needs and constraints.
@evan I say this, because the replies seem to indicate that many people are not assuming the RFC 2119 definition of "should", and are thus coming to a radically different interpretation of the poll question
-
This post is deleted!
I wish I had a hard number on what I though it'd take "to be a maintainer"
"It depends" *feels* like a cop out, but:
- Is the code stable & well written?
- Or is it spaghetti code that just mostly runs?
- Is it a niche app? Or super-popular that everyone uses?
- Or does Russia *really* want data off one of your servers?The curve could easily go from negligible (0-5 hrs/week) to being 60 hrs+ for months
My work is 30-40hrs/week, but I'm still greenfield, not maintaining, sooo 🤷🏼♂️
-
This post is deleted!
https://chaos.social/@joergi/116054283810328140
@TerryHancock @preinheimerI think the problem is for most of the open-source projects, there is no big team.
or even there is a team of maintainers, but do they have the rights to push new releases without the owner? Trust is everything.To your question: it depends, how much you can offer? if you are single without kids or if you have a family. and that can switch. so, you aren't obliged to work on it. but the project owner is obliged to have a working team
-
@evan I'm not entitled to anyone else's time or attention.
If I felt a project was not sufficiently maintained for my use case I would simply not use it.
What that threshold is has more to do with complexity, known bugs, etc.
But if I download some code someone wrote and put online for free, the author has no obligation to me, nor do I think they should.
If it mattered so much to me, I could offer to help - or fork the project.
-
@evan I'm not entitled to anyone else's time or attention.
If I felt a project was not sufficiently maintained for my use case I would simply not use it.
What that threshold is has more to do with complexity, known bugs, etc.
But if I download some code someone wrote and put online for free, the author has no obligation to me, nor do I think they should.
If it mattered so much to me, I could offer to help - or fork the project.
@evan if you're asking how much time you would have to spend to be able to *call yourself* a maintainer, the answer is probably "more than a random sample of your software's users".
-
This post is deleted!
@evan There are social expectations that people have for how to be careful and neighborly.
Encoding those as laws/rules is challenging & leads to HOAs and spite-houses & stumbles across individual norms and environmental factors.I maintain open-source; I /volunteer/ my time & energy as a service.
Corporations are amoral entities with large financial power. And tend to operate w/rules designed to discourage civic engagement & reward exploitative behavior. They should be forced to contribute.
-
https://chaos.social/@joergi/116054283810328140
@TerryHancock @preinheimerI think the problem is for most of the open-source projects, there is no big team.
or even there is a team of maintainers, but do they have the rights to push new releases without the owner? Trust is everything.To your question: it depends, how much you can offer? if you are single without kids or if you have a family. and that can switch. so, you aren't obliged to work on it. but the project owner is obliged to have a working team
@evan
and I'm not talking about very small projects.
it also depends what the project is.
If you fail in it, what will happen with the people who uses your project?Will there life goes on without it?
"with great power comes great responsibility"....and you should have a team, a bus can hit you and the project (your legacy) is unmaintained forever.
So, I still stand with my first answer: as much as you want and as long as it's healthy.
+ GET A TEAM ;-) -
@evan I say this, because the replies seem to indicate that many people are not assuming the RFC 2119 definition of "should", and are thus coming to a radically different interpretation of the poll question
This post is deleted! -
This post is deleted!
This post is deleted! -
@evan I'm going to assume you mean the RFC 2119 definition of "should", in which case the poll is asking how much time is recommended for a maintainer to reserve in their schedule each month, and not how much time they are obligated to. I think reserving a day of slack in one's schedule to be able to spend 8 hours moving things along in the project as needed is probably a good idea, but different projects and different maintainers will have radically different needs and constraints.
@aeva I don't think your interpretation of RFC 2119 SHOULD is correct. RFC 2119 SHOULD basically means "MUST, unless you have a really good reason."
-
@evan if you're asking how much time you would have to spend to be able to *call yourself* a maintainer, the answer is probably "more than a random sample of your software's users".
This post is deleted! -
@evan
and I'm not talking about very small projects.
it also depends what the project is.
If you fail in it, what will happen with the people who uses your project?Will there life goes on without it?
"with great power comes great responsibility"....and you should have a team, a bus can hit you and the project (your legacy) is unmaintained forever.
So, I still stand with my first answer: as much as you want and as long as it's healthy.
+ GET A TEAM ;-)@evan
and tbh: yes it drives me crazy, if I see that the main maintainer of a project I use is not releasing new software, even they promised it, and prefer working on their new project. It drives me nuts, but it's their right to do.Hopefully there will be a bigger team at one point, so the complete project is not relying on one person (who did a great job so far).
-
I wish I had a hard number on what I though it'd take "to be a maintainer"
"It depends" *feels* like a cop out, but:
- Is the code stable & well written?
- Or is it spaghetti code that just mostly runs?
- Is it a niche app? Or super-popular that everyone uses?
- Or does Russia *really* want data off one of your servers?The curve could easily go from negligible (0-5 hrs/week) to being 60 hrs+ for months
My work is 30-40hrs/week, but I'm still greenfield, not maintaining, sooo 🤷🏼♂️
This post is deleted! -
This post is deleted!
The amount of time and expertise an Open Source project needs is not coupled to the amount of time an unpaid, volunteer maintainer should dedicate to it.
Conversely, an unpaid, volunteer maintainer has no obligation to dedicate any particular amount of time to an Open Source project.
Perhaps it takes more time to maintain a project to my satisfaction than any maintainer is willing to dedicate to it. If so, I'll be disappointed. I'm used to it.
-
@aeva I don't think your interpretation of RFC 2119 SHOULD is correct. RFC 2119 SHOULD basically means "MUST, unless you have a really good reason."
@hober I think I would prefer to defer to the hypothetical maintainer as to whether or not they might have a really good reason to put aside volunteer work for a month
[a sock puppet with a little shirt that says "hypothetical maintainer" on it rises up from the bottom of the screen] child care! personal emergency! health crisis! fascist goons kidnapping your neighbors!
thank you hypothetical maintainer, that was very informative.
-
@evan if they don't the project won't be as good, and that's okay, it's a hobby.
It's not the only reason people do things, by far, but it is the only way you can rely on someone to do something. Else, it's up to them.
Generally speaking I'd say if you want to have a great OSS project, you need to put time into it, but that may not be their goal. It may be to publish an idea, to learn a library or programming language, etc.
Maintenance is hard work.
This post is deleted! -
@hober I think I would prefer to defer to the hypothetical maintainer as to whether or not they might have a really good reason to put aside volunteer work for a month
[a sock puppet with a little shirt that says "hypothetical maintainer" on it rises up from the bottom of the screen] child care! personal emergency! health crisis! fascist goons kidnapping your neighbors!
thank you hypothetical maintainer, that was very informative.
@aeva yes, exactly. which is why "it depends, anything from zero to infinity" is the only reasonable answer to the pol, as far as I can tell. who am I to even guess?
-
This post is deleted!
@evan @ted If you think someone is obligated to put work into something despite not being paid, that's called entitlement. If you want to ensure they keep working on something, you should make it worth their while. Otherwise you're just exploiting them and demanding free labor. It's the same thing as "working for exposure".
What their goals are is entirely orthogonal to the question you asked. Your question was broadly applicable. Narrowing the scope is moving the goalposts.
And I say this as someone who's put tens of thousands of hours into FOSS projects without the promise of compensation.
-
@aeva yes, exactly. which is why "it depends, anything from zero to infinity" is the only reasonable answer to the pol, as far as I can tell. who am I to even guess?
This post is deleted!
Feed RSS
Gli ultimi otto messaggi ricevuti dalla Federazione
-
@evan Are you back from Europe yet? You didn't go to the Globe, did you?
-
"lisdexamfetamine" is short for "elizabethdexamfetamine"
-
@molly0xfff Think of all the AI token you'll be able to afford now!
-
@be_far @molly0xfff Underrated toot.
-
@utf_7@mastodon.social @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io anything that annoys the rich and powerful will be justified as illegal retroactively, regardless of what it is right now tbh
-
-
We went to see Hamlet last night. One day or less.
-
I wonder, if this reallly woked, would it be illegal and considerdes as hacking?
