SleepyHead Project Is Shutting Down
jedimark.net
jedimark.net
I volunteered to do a sleep study at the famous Stanford Sleep Clinic some 15 years ago hoping that they would tell me I’m superhuman and don’t need sleep. They came back and told me that I sleep very poorly.
CPAP machines are (finally) wonderful, but the manufacturers don’t share any of the data that their machines collect other than basics like hours slept. For those of us with the intellectual curiosity to actually double click on your sleep numbers, Mark’s work is invaluable. I have over 1,500 nights of sleep logged in Sleepyhead...I learned the perils of drinking wine with dinner, the value in tucking in at the same time every night, and which masks work best for me—just to name a few benefits.
I use sleep medicine to improve my life, the same way that I use a screwdriver to tighten screws—which is to say, I pay no attention to the sleep-apnea forums and I suspect most users are the same. I’m sharing all of this here in case Mark by chance frequents this forum—and hopefully if enough others like me discuss the value that this free product creates every night for so many millions of users, he may reconsider. I for one, would gladly pay for a Sleepyhead subscription if that meant continued support.
Thanks Mark, your work is invaluable.
Link to vice motherboard article about why Sleepyhead matters: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/xwjd4w/im-possibl...
(it is "yes")
Its not as black and white as it seems
I've fallen into that pattern myself, and seen my code forked and extended by those that were still interested. The thing that stung was them erasing all the commit history giving me attribution!
I respect all the work and dedication it took him to build what he did, but from the reading I've done on the forums, it does appear that he is the primary source of all this drama. There really isn't any competing interests, and no big corporate takeover.
- Maintainer disappeared for a while, people wanted their fixes merged.
- ApneaBoard community made a "1.1.0" release of "SleepyHead" without the author's approval, rather than forking it and calling it something else.
- Maintainer unhappy about them using his trademark without his permission.
It's a mess.
So Mark says. The ApneaBoard folks say that it was released by Mark's chosen right hand man.
As far as I can tell the ApneaBoard folks have yet to release their own version or fork the code. They seem to be organizing to do just that which is what set Mark off.
He doesn't seem to be willing to cede ANY control to someone, but also needs to take several months off the project at a time. Neither of these are inherently bad but you can't have it both ways.
It might or might not be true. People might actually appreciate what you're doing, but never explicitly say it. However, after a certain point, your mind becomes so toxic and awful that nothing will convince you otherwise. It's really better to walk away than become a shitty, bitter husk IMO. Good luck, guy!
I think this is a great blog post / talk (not mine) about the topic: https://snarky.ca/setting-expectations-for-open-source-parti...
"Here's a bit of real talk for people: I think working in OSS has made me more bitter and short-temperated".
Best wishes to the maintainer, hopefully time gives some perspective on the problems in the community and perhaps some ways forward.
> Let it be known that the hosts of the ApneaBoard forum have finally succeeded in their efforts to hijack the SleepyHead project.
Sounds like it's not "shutting down" as much as forked, and he's upset. Also it looks like the reason why it's getting forked is because critical bugs went out. People are relying on this to live, and he's treating it like a hobby -- because it is to him.
His post is full of recriminations and cries about being betrayed. Even the forum post someone found[0] in these comments supports this idea of a fork.
> ApneaBoard's recent "release committee" initiative is illegitimate and is seeking to undermine my years of work on SleepyHead and undermine my role in my own software project."
> If it's NOT SleepyHead, don't call it SleepyHead, and don't make it look like SleepyHead... it's that simple!
The code is GPLed[1]. It sounds like there were other people willing to contribute. The code goes on, without him.
[0] http://www.cpaptalk.com/viewtopic/t174687/SleepyHead-Project...
Which means you have a license to use the code, per the original author's copyright. It does not mean you automatically have a license to the original author's trademark. In short, if you fork, you should rename your fork to something else.
That's not how it works - other people are free to fork the code, but the trademark is owned by the original author.
This is one of the reasons why open source foundations exist - they hold the trademark and decide on how it can be used. For instance, CNCF or Apache Foundation holds the trademark for its member projects - you can't call your Prometheus fork "Prometheus" and use their logo etc.
> Trademarks rights must be maintained through actual lawful use of the trademark. These rights will cease if a mark is not actively used for a period of time, normally 5 years in most jurisdictions.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark#Maintaining_rights
As much as I want free software and all that, it seems like medical devices have the best cause for DRM and all the protections it affords.
The software is quite good, too, with a better UX than a lot of enterprise apps that I use on a daily basis. Might go to show how one person's ownership can lead to the creation of great experiences in ways that the lack of ownership often found in large software projects does not.
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/xwjd4w/im-possibl...
First post is by Jedimark, which goes into more detail, and there are some comments with other sides of the story.
The author seems to take any input or effort from others to improve his open source and GPL licensed project as a personal attack.
If you're an open source project maintainer who has an ever growing foes list of people who develop forks of your project or make suggestions you don't like, you might want to re-evaluate yourself.
To his credit, that is exactly what he did, and the result of that evaluation is visible right here; he decided that foss world was not for him.
Anyone know what the story is behind this? Is it that GPL is hard to monetize?
In my experience there's only one reasonable way to deal with "friendly" forks like that. Meet up with the folks who forked the project, thank them for their work and ask if they're interested in reunifying the codebase and joining the two teams.
And if that fails, you switch to "Okay I respect this is GPL/BSD/xyz'd OSS, you have a right to fork the code. But can you please name it something else so people aren't confused? And do you mind if I cherrypick some of your cool features and fixes back into mainline?"
Maybe I'm just turning into an old pacifist, but I just don't see the point of stoking hatred and arguments in an open community.
I know a few folks who use CPAP machines and would likely contribute to such an endeavour.
It sucks but that's just how it works, and seems inevitable with the entire project focused around the primary maintainer.
Seems like Jedimark is doing the right thing by removing himself from the situation to focus on his life. It's open source so hopefully the community can fork it and maybe find an organizational model that's more sustainable for continued support.
Official Project Page: https://sleepyhead.jedimark.net/
Source Link: https://gitlab.com/sleepyhead/sleepyhead-code
>The pattern goes like this:
1. JediMark asks for feedback, development help etc. 2. Folks step up to the plate and help him out. 3. The code is improved and released. 4. Time passes, bugs are found, new machines need support, so those that help Mark out try to contact him to inform him of these needful things. 5. Mark goes "dark" and drops out of any online activity for MONTHS at a time. 6. The "helpers" get frustrated and keep trying to contact Mark for direction. 7. Their requests are ignored by Mark, repeatedly. 8. The "helpers" start talking about trying to help fix the code themselves, since users are clamoring for the fixes with JediMark nowhere to be found. 9. The "helpers" actually fix a bit of the code and offer it up to those who would like to use a "fixed" version, or install a patch. 10. Suddenly, JediMark comes out of hiding, and attacks the "helpers" for not allowing him time to fix the problems himself, saying (basically) that "No one understands the code like I do, since I am the creator of SleepyHead, and your efforts to 'fix' things only messes up my progress!!!" and "You guys are trying to steal SleepyHead away!" 11. The "helpers" are stunned by Mark's attacks and slink off away into oblivion, since they're offended that Mark thinks they are a bunch of "rebels". 12. More months pass with nothing being done. 13. GOTO step 4 (1)
-------------------
>I was your friend, for several years, until you decided that I was your enemy because I suggested you talk to Pugsy about things that confused new users. Things that confused them then, and things that continue to confuse them now.
At that point, you decided I was out to get you" and trying to destroy sleepyhead.
You've done the same with Arie, who's been helping you for far longer than I had, and now you've decided that Apneaboard is against you.
The fact that people don't agree* with everything you might think DOES NOT MEAN THEY ARE AGAINST YOU!.
Your real friends aren't the sycophants that do nothing but shower you with praise.
Your real friends are the ones that actually give enough of a shit to tell you "hey, dude, you've got a problem.", or in the case of Sleepyhead "hey, what you're doing is hurting the program, and everybody that uses it.
Go ahead and let someone else work on 1.1, if you don't like it, FINE, just ignore them.
There's no reason for you to go off the deep end, making posts about how everybody is out to get you.
BECAUSE THEY'RE NOT out to get you[/u][/i][/b], or, destroy sleepyhead.
For Gods sake, you and I worked for hundreds of hours, you told me endless stories about your childhood and growing up and sent me pictures of your first Christmas tree, and you wearing the T-shirt I had custom made for you.... but when I suggested you talk to Pugsy about what confuses people... you were in one of your paranoid phases, and suddenly, I was THE ENEMY.
The same thing is happening now.
If I didn't care, about you... I'd just laugh and say "he's off his rocker again..." I'd really rather you get help though, so you can be a happier person.(2)
(1) Apneaboard.com/forums/Thread-SleepyHead-version-1-1-Release-plus-odd-posts-by-JediMark?pid=284578#pid284578
(2) http://www.cpaptalk.com/viewtopic/t174687/SleepyHead-Project...
It sucks that it came down to this and it reminds me of how many entitled toxic pricks exist out there just to make the work of those voluntarily trying to make the world a better place harder. It's sad that they've won this time, but his wife and daughter won big time.
If you are reading this, thank you sincerely and I hope you find joy in your future endeavors.
While I generally agree with this sentiment, based on what I've read I don't believe that is what happened here. The rantings and ramblings posted by Mark really do sound like he may be struggling with a paranoid personality disorder. During a period where he was seemingly absent and unresponsive the community decided to continue to work on the project and try to iron out some bugs. As far as I can tell no one tried to hijack his project or monetize the work.