How much time per month should an unpaid volunteer maintainer dedicate to an Open Source project?
Uncategorized
110
Posts
25
Posters
72
Views
-
@evan @hober I agree that is often true, but not always. Sometimes a project is just complete for the time being, and the maintainer is still available to update it as needed. It is an unusual state of being for projects with any significant complexity, but it's worth acknowledging that there's a subtle difference between unmaintained and very stable.
This post is deleted! -
This post is deleted!
-
@evan I'm genuinely confused as to what the question is.
Is it about taking credit as a maintainer?
Is it about being counted among other maintainers who contribute more time?
Is it about when to deem a project unmaintained?
Is it about when to donate vs. volunteer vs. fork?
Is it about something else?
There is no craft. We are not union; we do not have a trade association or certification board. We're just people who write code and put it online.
Nobody is obliged to work for free.
Say I have a moment in my life when I have a bunch of free time and I create something cool and put it on github.
Say a bunch of people think this is awesome and add it as a dependency for their projects. Maybe a few bigcorps decide to use it.
Then say I get a different job, or have kids, or get sick, or just get bored or tired.
And now everyone is emailing me, "when are you gonna fix X?"
My response is either gonna be "tough luck" or "pay me".
-
@evan I'm genuinely confused as to what the question is.
Is it about taking credit as a maintainer?
Is it about being counted among other maintainers who contribute more time?
Is it about when to deem a project unmaintained?
Is it about when to donate vs. volunteer vs. fork?
Is it about something else?
There is no craft. We are not union; we do not have a trade association or certification board. We're just people who write code and put it online.
Nobody is obliged to work for free.
This post is deleted! -
This post is deleted!
So that's a completely different question.
If you're *applying* to be a volunteer maintainer *on an existing project you do not own*, then obviously, there will be expectations set by the existing community, which will be different for every single project.
For reference: I write primarily OSS software, but I do it professionally. So, naturally, my employer sets the expectations for my contribution.
-
So that's a completely different question.
If you're *applying* to be a volunteer maintainer *on an existing project you do not own*, then obviously, there will be expectations set by the existing community, which will be different for every single project.
For reference: I write primarily OSS software, but I do it professionally. So, naturally, my employer sets the expectations for my contribution.
And this is where I differ:
"the question is a practical one for Open Source volunteers"
No, it is a practical one for established OSS projects, or those looking to take on volunteer maintainers.
The community sets the standard, not the individual.
The individual can choose to abide by the standards of the community or not, and there may or may not be consequences within the community.
-
This post is deleted!
@evan I'd say so. Depends on the size of the goal and the importance to the contributor. Definitely not one-size-fits-all there (:
-
Say I have a moment in my life when I have a bunch of free time and I create something cool and put it on github.
Say a bunch of people think this is awesome and add it as a dependency for their projects. Maybe a few bigcorps decide to use it.
Then say I get a different job, or have kids, or get sick, or just get bored or tired.
And now everyone is emailing me, "when are you gonna fix X?"
My response is either gonna be "tough luck" or "pay me".
This post is deleted! -
And this is where I differ:
"the question is a practical one for Open Source volunteers"
No, it is a practical one for established OSS projects, or those looking to take on volunteer maintainers.
The community sets the standard, not the individual.
The individual can choose to abide by the standards of the community or not, and there may or may not be consequences within the community.
This post is deleted! -
This post is deleted!
@evan okay so you are asking about when one should deem a project "unmaintained".
Depends entirely on the project.
Also while you are centering project volunteers, the judgment is one that necessarily must be made by downstream users, not by the alleged maintainers.
(Though it's fine and helpful to say "hey this project is now unmaintained, just FYI".)
-
@evan as much as they want, that’s the whole point of volunteering
This post is deleted! -
This post is deleted!
@evan @ted As it stands I'm kind of an odd example. I'm only a maintainer on one (mostly) unpaid project and I'm also the only maintainer. Most of my unpaid contributions to other projects are just one-offs, though the number of projects I've contributed small amounts to is quite large (it includes things like libpng, libtiff, FreeBSD, Linux (though now I am paid for that and my contributions have skyrocketed) and a significant number of other projects I'm forgetting).
Said long-term project I've been working on for nearly 13 years but I've done less and less work on it over the last 9 of those, after having burnt out. As such, I don't really have opinions on those questions. But I also have refused to start new projects as this project still isn't what I'd consider feature complete and I don't want to further split my attention.
-
This post is deleted!
@evan I mean sure, eventually. I have 8 people with admin on my repos and they will very often dedicate zero amount of time, but they’ve proven themselves trustworthy in the past and periodically pop back up.
Maintainers have zero time obligation too. That’s how it all works, zero guarantees zero obligations everything provided “as is” on both sides.
Works great
-
@evan I mean sure, eventually. I have 8 people with admin on my repos and they will very often dedicate zero amount of time, but they’ve proven themselves trustworthy in the past and periodically pop back up.
Maintainers have zero time obligation too. That’s how it all works, zero guarantees zero obligations everything provided “as is” on both sides.
Works great
@evan I’ll note that for maintainers that are inactive for an extended period of time well freeze or revoke access for security reasons, but if they come back then we just give it back. It’s all just based on trust and mutual respect. Been doing it for 20 years now with success
-
This post is deleted!
@evan as much or as little as they want to; they're under no obligation to perform unpaid labor by definition. [4 hours or less]
-
This post is deleted!
@evan @preinheimer @joergi that's a separate follow up question, evan <3 ;)
-
This post is deleted!
@evan I was giving my honest opinion. If there's something to disagree with, let me know in direct language and I'm happy to discuss.
-
@evan as much or as little as they want to; they're under no obligation to perform unpaid labor by definition. [4 hours or less]
@evan also the *required* maintenance for a mature, small, or rarely used project is often less than 4 hours a month.
don't invent work requirements for people who happen to publish projects with open source licenses!
-
This post is deleted!
@evan @mitchellh evan, please stop being a dick to people replying honestly in good faith to your polls because your wording was unclear about the secret second question. you know better <3
-
This post is deleted!
@evan depends on what you consider an open source project.
Personally I'd argue that anything not copyleft is effectively throw away and not really a project that wants to be open long term. But, others may disagree.
Feed RSS
Gli ultimi otto messaggi ricevuti dalla Federazione
-
@mvu :O!
-
@aeva I found the usb charger for my 3DS; it was a pretty big day :>
-
@evan who's using the project? am i in a hurry to get it finished for some reason or is this a hobby project? do i have the tools in place or are their restraints on when i can get them and use them? am i doing this full-time or part-time? do i have other stuff going on?
-
Ukraine's cyber police detained two men who tried to steal government funds from a local hospital.
The two allegedly hacked the PC of the hospital's accountant.
They then transferred more than $115,000 from the hospital's budget to their own company's accounts.
-
@evan "how much time should you spend on a woodworking project?"
a chair?
a table?
a wardrobe?
a system of cabinets across a house?
-
@evan I'm choosing "4 hours or less", not because the volunteer should work less but because they should be paid more (i.e. at all) 🙃
-
@evan if I decide tomorrow to stop working on any OSS I’ve ever done as either a contributor or creator that’s…. Totally fine. I’ve never promised anything else.
-
@evan what do you mean done? Anyone can be done whenever they want. The project has no obligation the maintainers have no obligation the community has no obligation. I’m sorry I don’t understand what you’re asking.
