[colug-432] Unfotunate Incomplete Projects

[Roberto C. Sánchez]

On Thu, May 12, 2016 at 02:43:54AM -0400, Jacob Ulrich wrote:
> 
> Ok, well, since you asked. I'll explain the situation but I doubt you'll 
> like it as it's a bit ungracious. Across the internet, there are these 
> domains called imageboards (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imageboard). 
> There is a particular popular imageboard which is used more than others 
> titled 8chan but it seems that the engine it runs on is broken 
> (https://8ch.net/tech/res/591588.html) and it's Admin compromised. For 
> what it's worth, I'm figuring to start my very own imageboard with this 
> engine (https://github.com/infinity-next/infinity-next) but it's too 
> incomplete! So how would I get the engine I want to utilize completed if 
> I don't know the language and framework it's written in? This is truly 
> about the software too though, nothing personal. And because I regularly 
> participate in discussions on imagebaords. I'm hoping this email doesn't 
> give me unyielding reputation. Actually, I first learned of LUG groups 
> from this board too by the way. Before that I had never actually met 
> another GNU/Linux user so please have some insight.

Hi Jacob,

I sense your frustration.  I recently had a desire to obtain some
detailed hardware information from within a Java program (it turned out
to be much more difficult and complicated than I expected) and found a
couple of GitHub projects that looked promising but still too
incomplete/immature for my needs.  I could develop the necessary changes
to make either project do what I need, but it is complex and I simply
don't have the time.

That said, your situation is slightly different.  First of all, the
project you linked appears to be active; the most recent commit is only
two weeks ago.  Second of all, there are 13 GitHub contributors.  I
think that you could start by contacting the author, perhaps by
submitting issues with feature requests in GitHub.  You might also
contact some of the active contributors and request that they assist
you.  Plenty of folks like working on Open Source software because it
out in the open and for programmers it can help build their portfolio of
work.

Failing that, you could always fork the code and start your own project
around it.  You don't have to be a programmer to start/lead an open
source project, but you might find it slow going if you depend upon
others to do the programming work.  Of course, many small open source
projects are lacking where it comes to management skills, so if you are
a skilled manager it could at least partly make up for you not being the
main developer.

You could also take this as an opportunity to learn a new programming
language.  One of the projects with which I am involed came about
initially because the original author wanted to learn a new language.
When he completely implemented everything he wanted, he started
reimplementing the project in a new language.

Another possibility is if you feel like there might be a business
opportunity related to your idea, buy a ticket to Startup Weekend
Columbus [0] (it starts tomorrow).  You can go there, pitch the idea and
form a team around it to get the idea off the ground.  If it works out
well, you could form a company around it and keep it going.  I attended
Startup Weekend Columbus in 2015 and Startup Weekend Dayton in 2014.  It
was a phenomenal experience each time and it is the right kind of place
for someone who as an idea for something but needs help from folks with
other skillsets to get it moving.

Regards,

-Roberto

[0] http://www.up.co/communities/usa/columbus/events

-- 
Roberto C. Sánchez
http://people.connexer.com/~roberto
http://www.connexer.com