Hacker News Reader

Comment by kristiandupont | Hacker News Reader

On various open source projects I have been running, people have requested that I implement this or that feature of zero interest to me. Most are presented as suggestions but some are rude and demanding. I have never understood this mindset. The fact that I am sharing code that I wrote means that I am now obligated to offer support and implement stuff that I don't care about?

The way I see it, the "point" of open source is just that: the source code is open -- for you to see, use and modify if you like. The author is free to do what they want with their time.

View on HN

This is what professional support contracts are for. If someone really wants something implemented that is of no use to anyone else, then they should pay for it.

Not everybody wants to make a career out of their side project. Just because you offer me money, doesn't mean I should be obligated to take it. (By all means, offer the money to somebody else, just leave me out of it.)

I'm ok with that. What I'm not ok with is when people use open source as an excuse for mediocrity. Many times you do hear "It's open source, I'm doing this for free, just fork it!" when it probably should be "It's a hobby project, it probably won't go anywhere and the code wasn't really made to be used by someone else, but if you can find something useful you're free to use it". There are a lot of active open source projects out there that spend a lot of time maintaining their project and I think it's kind of "meh" to undermine the positive things they've been working for.

I have absolutely 0 problem with this, as long as a disclaimer is listed like the OP did. I honestly think this is the right way to do it. Imagine though if apache had some major security flaw uncovered tomorrow and the maintainers said, "This is just an open source project. You are free to look into the issue and fix it yourself if you want. We will merge the pull request when we get around to it.". Managing expectations is-- as usual-- everything.

You might need to point those people to an open source FAQ stating that you do in fact have a day job and that you cannot find time to support changes you do not care for unless you are getting paid to do so and that if the person wishes they can hire someone to fork the code and implement it themselves and you will be happy to take the pull request

Why not just say to them:

I do not have time or interest in doing this, but I would be happy to accept a pull request which meets our project guidelines.

Because that takes more time and effort than not doing that. Who are you to tell this developer how to spend his time?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com