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Comment by caboteria | Hacker News Reader

Turning the question around: what's so special about this one piece of software that justifies hiding it?

I know nothing about bun, but it is a common pattern when you have a vision for how to build a complicated piece of software that will end up being open source to start with it closed off until you've got enough of everything in place that you're comfortable showing it off to everyone. When it's open, people will expect to be able to send PRs, ask questions, etc, and at the start, that can be a distraction from the task at hand of getting the initial system built.

This is 100% the reason why. Having > 500 people in the GitHub repository distracts me from getting it to be done enough for a public release (but still worth it)

I am reminded of the last paragraph of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26410487

Keep building some cool tech and ignore the folks who are mad you set a boundary in this thread; very interested to see where this project ends up.

I can’t think of a single example where a piece of open-source software was announced like this before it was available in some form.

Sure, your mileage may vary. I often see people tweet about or talk about stuff before it's actually ready to go, as a way of getting specific feedback early on without committing to all of the stuff involved in opening a repository.

Also, I don't really see where the authors submitted it to HN, so saying they announced it this way is a bit strange.

By the way, it is available in "some form." After reading your comment I joined the Discord, there is an #invites channel where you can type "I want bun" and it will generate a link for you to be invited to the repo, with a #releases channel that links to each release.

Edit to add comment from the author: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29182837

It wasn’t announced like this. And it is available in some form.

What you describe is quite reasonable, but that's not what's happening here. If the author were doing what you describe then we wouldn't be talking about it on HN. Instead, they've gone to the trouble of building a fancy pink website and also hidden the software behind a paywall (or something, I didn't click it). Speaking only for myself, it's the combination of those two things that creeps me out.

It is early access, pre-production and suppose to be invite only. The author did not submit or told me to submit it on HN. I dont even know Jarred and only follow his twitter account.

Well I guess I made the mistake of submitting Hop on HN in the first place. Which leads to submission of Bun here. The amount of negativity in this thread is depressing. I am now considering not doing it any more.

Edit to add comment from the author: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29182837

> If the author were doing what you describe then we wouldn't be talking about it on HN.

We’re talking about it on HN because the same author released another piece of software today which made it to the front page, its relevance to Bun was mentioned, and someone saw fit to post about it.

> Instead, they've gone to the trouble of building a fancy pink website and also hidden the software behind a paywall (or something, I didn't click it).

It’s not a paywall, it’s a public Discord invite, which will almost certainly get you access to the repo if you actually want it.

It's not a paywall, it's that you have to ask in order to see it. Asking automatically gives you access. I think that seems very reasonable, you want only people who are interested enough to follow through. This is one step above "nobody gets it" and one step below "everyone gets it."

I’m not sure “hiding” it requires justification. But it isn’t ready for public consumption, and it’s generated a lot of interest. I’d have to assume limiting the volume of feedback is at least part of the motivation. I’ve seen several other projects, large and small, take this early stage approach.

It’s also not particularly hidden, the private repo currently has 172 watchers and IIRC I got an invite as soon as I asked for it.

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