[bibabaloo]

Uh, sure, maybe in a professional setting where you’re getting paid. But this was unpaid volunteer work. If, as a community, we start enforcing professional grade standards on people who are just contributing their free time to give us neat toys and tools, I kinda worry it makes the whole thing the whole thing less fun or sustainable. And if that happens, we probably stop getting these free toys altogether.

[keyle]

I heart-fully disagree. Being professional crosses the bounds of paid work and unpaid work.

It doesn't take much work to not leave a gigantic pile of trash behind you.

If anything, it's an even more a self-responsible thing to do in the OSS world, as there isn't a chain of command such as in the corporate world, enforcing this.

It's selfish to engage in group relation with other people building something without the conscious decision of continuity.

A job worth doing is a job worth doing well. Maybe I'm just a gray beard with unrealistic expectations, or maybe I care about quality.

[teddyh]

Think of it as a non-profit club. If you volunteer to be the treasurer, are you then free to ignore everything and do whatever you like, just because you aren’t paid? Of course not. It’s the same with being a software project maintainer; you have willingly taken on some obligations.

[themaninthedark]

If you volunteer, sure.

If I put some code out on the internet and some other people find it and start using it, they message me we talk and I start adding things they suggest and working with others to improve this code. Then one day I wake up and don't want to do it anymore. At what point did I become obligated? When I published the code? When I first started talking to others about it(building a community)? When I coded their suggestions? When I worked with other coders?

Who get to decide where the line is?

[teddyh]

(Many people disagree vehemently with ascribing any obligation at all to software maintainers, as discussed previously: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43143176>)

[bux93]

It's not like this kind of thing doesn't happen in the professional world - in fact, quite the opposite. The incentives to cut corners in a company are if anything greater than in open source, with pressure from management to meet the next deadline.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_factor