Comment by ☀️ sbr
@clseibold Ill take a look today on my lunch break, are you on a slightly more dynamic comms like IRC? I loiter on libera chat if you want to ping me a message, there is a #gemini channel we could use which is otherwise rather dead.
2025-07-02 · 10 months ago
10 Later Comments ↓
🚀 clseibold [OP/mod, 🛂] · 2025-07-02 at 08:54:
@sbr Okay, I'll get on #gemini.
After reading the thread and the related articles I wrote a little post concerning the topic.
— I will stay on the small web
☯️ dragfyre · 2025-07-17 at 02:09:
so we getting on irc?
edit: added my own two cents on m.pub.
👾 jecxjo · 2025-07-17 at 18:53:
After reading this huge thread I think we are all missing one massive talking point. What is going on here is THE problem with FLOSS development. Unless there is something pushing for further development no one does it. This is why we see so many clones of other software, people wanting their own tweaked version and then the project dies a few months or years later. I'd be amazed if even 30% of Github's repos was still maintained.
What can we do to get a community not only interested in a given project, but keep them interested. I love the GoodReads idea, I use BookWyrm and I keep a gmi page for my books. But honestly I can't see myself indefinitely working on a project even if I use it.
👻 darkghost · 2025-07-17 at 19:49:
Development isn't just the creation of a piece of software. It is also maintenance. Someone needs to do the unsexy maintenance, keeping up with the libraries used and making sure it doesn't break. Interest will wane or new features will be added. I went through the Gemini servers a while back thinking of starting a capsule. A lot of them have multiple year old repos that haven't seen any action since the 2021 era. I couldn't be sure they would compile since they might need a 4 year old lib to work.
👾 jecxjo · 2025-07-17 at 20:03:
I know this is a hot take and totally against the free and open concept of the code we write...
But would it make sense to promote a community VCS, and push for people to work on an existing project over making your own? I know everyone wants to make their own stuff but I think we need to find a way to make community projects ACTUALLY BE community projects.
🦂 zzo38 · 2025-07-17 at 20:48:
Some software will be completed enough that it is not necessary to add any new features, although you may still intend to correct bugs (unless it is good enough already), to port the software (unless it is emulated), improve the documentation, etc.
You can contribute to existing software as well as writing your own software. Sometimes it is something new and not only clones of existing software, but even clones of existing software can be made improved in many ways compared with the original software (e.g. my "Free Hero Mesh" software is a clone of Everett Kaser's "MESH:Hero" software). Sometimes, existing FOSS might be too different than what you wanted to do that the existing software cannot easily be changed to do what you wanted it to do (or to not do something that you want it to not do).
👾 jecxjo · 2025-07-17 at 21:02:
@zzo38 You are exactly right in why project death and splintering happens.
That doesn't really fix the issue though. We are now at the 5+ year mark for the protocol which means that many clients, servers and services are going to be hitting end of life on LTS versions of the libraries they use. Language version updates means you can't build half of the clients I'm seeing out there without having to first install an older version of Go or C# or Rust.
When I go looking at software if I see there hasn't been any files updated within 2 years I skip it. I know that the build system alone is going to be out of date. And I know that I too am not keeping up with anything old I wrote.
🦂 zzo38 · 2025-07-17 at 21:13:
I have used software older than 2 years (and much more than that). The build system alone will not necessarily be out of date; it depends how the software is written and what build system it uses. Some programs are written that they can last much longer than that, especially if there are not many external dependencies.
👾 jecxjo · 2025-07-17 at 21:25:
Yes I was being slightly alarmist for a point.
It's not about how long the project has been around. It's that simply keeping up with security updates, keeping in step with latest language and build systems, etc show that most people stop looking at their own projects after its "good enough." This is fine in many cases.
But what this also means is that people stop looking at their bug reporting and feature requests. They stop putting in the effort. Most are probably burnt out which is natural. Others only like flashy new things. But if the complaint in this thread is that we need more people active, we need to start figuring out how to deal with burnout. How do we get less one person projects?
Original Post
Bored and Exhausted — Not gonna lie, I've done so much stuff with Gemini: a search engine, Q&A site, a music library service and radio, youtube and twitch proxies, misfin geminimail, AuraRepo, a 25% finished MMO game, a Sefaria proxy, a whole server suite, my own GUI browser, but, y'all, I am so freaking bored and exhausted at the same time. None of what I've made is exciting anymore. I had plans on finishing Biomebound, finishing up my server suite software (SIS), and then moving on to a Wiki...