Comment by 🦂 zzo38
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).
2025-07-17 · 10 months ago
3 Later Comments ↓
👾 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 I know that the build system alone is going to be out of date.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 The build system alone will not necessarily be out of date; it depends how the software is written and what build system it uses.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...