Mpv – A free, open-source, and cross-platform media player

I was hoping that mpv would work a bit better than vlc for sending video to chromecast, but unfortunately, another similarly amusing thread: https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/issues/177

Far from me to defend the whole mpv team[1], but the dev in that thread is a ghost (deleted user). I remember them, they were always rude and eventually got kicked out of the project and loudly complained about “being removed from the project [they] created”. I never found the exact reason why, though I can’t help but think the attitude had something to do with it.

[1] Some are quite nice and competent. Others are exceedingly rude and will e.g. jump on an issue that had thus far been entirely cordial just to, without provocation, insult users for using whatever OS they don’t like.

Ghost is my soulmate. As a OSS maintainer, I feel that.

Not a week goes by without some random dude coming to my repos expecting I implement whatever they ask, or else be called a dick.

Particularly: you don’t have to use mpv if it doesn’t do what you want it to do, and don’t bust my ** because of it.

It's a former developer that's no longer affiliated with the project since 2021 or thereabouts. They did not part on good terms because he behaved in the same way towards other mpv developers, "my way or the highway".

So you probably shouldn't let anything that old sour your opinion on the current mpv.

(I don't belong to either side, just have been using the player since its inception.)

The last issue that caused them to leave was their desire to move mpv to their own build system, which they believed they could write in a weekend. Other mpv developers thought that was a stupid idea and argued in favor of something more standard, such as meson. That was the last straw for both sides.

> Ghost is my soulmate. As a OSS maintainer, I feel that.

You also close issues without even trying to understand what they’re about?

https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/issues/177#issuecomment-29...

https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/issues/177#issuecomment-62...

> some random dude coming to my repos expecting I implement whatever they ask, or else be called a dick.

If that’s what you took from that discussion, I sincerely recommend you take a break. You may be experiencing burnout. It’s of course your choice to not implement something you don’t want in your project, but let’s not pretend everyone making a request, especially people who have shown research are dicks out to get you.

I tell you this as fellow open-source maintainer. I’ve learned over the years that if people opening issues are a frequent source of frustration, the first step is to investigate how I can make that less of an issue (e.g. using a GitHub template that forces a specific kind of action) and secondly realise that I need some distance and to relax. When you feel like everyone is an asshole, it’s probably just you.

By the way, that maintainer in particularly was known for lashing out at the smallest things and being rude unprovoked. Perhaps consider reading more of the history before calling them your soulmate.

> their own build system, which they believed they could write in a weekend.

That doesn’t seem right:

> (…) I started this over a year ago (…)

https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/pull/7801#issuecomment-641...

> Other mpv developers thought that was a stupid idea and argued in favor of something more standard

That doesn’t seem right either. I just read the whole PR thread and I see a bunch of users arguing for it, not other maintainers.

The maintainer was certainly controversial and I found several commits and bad decisions which look to be almost universally hated, but it’s not clear to me this specific problem was what caused them to quit or that it was motivated by other maintainers.

If you could provide a source for your claim, it would be appreciated.

No man, you don’t understand. I take every step possible to avoid people opening issues, they just either disregard the 4 steps between the problem and the GitHub issue, or just come out swinging saying I should just implement it “because many people want it” or I should suggest an alternative. My issue template specifically says “do not request this feature” and they still delete it and request it.

I have no patience for people who are assholes and you shouldn’t either. They’re blocked on sight and that’s how I deal with them.

You say “unprovoked”, I see people completely disregarding my wellbeing by telling me how to spend my free time and how to design my product.

> Perhaps consider reading more of the history before calling them your soulmate.

I don’t need to judge a person by his whole life, I’m just talking about that specific issue as it matches my experience as described above.

> My issue template specifically says “do not request this feature” and they still delete it and request it.

If they can delete it, that’s the first problem you should fix. Don’t use the old style of GitHub templates where it just dumps a bunch of prewritten text. Use the modern style with the YAML template that makes a GUI form.

You can have mandatory checkboxes which say “I am not requesting [feature]”, with a link to some other document explaining why something won’t be implemented. Add another with “I understand my issue will be closed without review and I will be blocked if I don’t follow this guide”. Finally, disable free-form issues. Only allow people to go through the templates.

> You say “unprovoked”, I see people completely disregarding my wellbeing

I thought it was pretty clear I was talking about the maintainer from the issue, not you. I don’t know if you were unprovoked or not, I know this maintainer wasn’t.

> I don’t need to judge a person by his whole life

In general, sure. But when calling someone a soulmate… That implies a deep level of connection, not one event.

Anyway, could you clarify exactly in which way you see the people in this issue being assholes, particularly before the maintainer arrived and closed the issue without even beginning to understand the request?

> No man, you don’t understand.

I maintained large open-source projects you definitely heard of, and today continue to have to deal with these kinds of requests daily. If you think the initial requests in this issue are enough to call these people “assholes” and that they’re being disrespectful to the maintainer’s well being, I maintain you should take a break. One of the signs of burnout is seeing every little comment as a personal attack. I know, I’ve been there. Stop accepting requests and take a vacation from it. Or even stop entirely. Have empathy for yourself and regain empathy for others. I wish you the best.

> that’s the first problem you should fix.

But you see how this is a battle against stupid people? I also had checkboxes before for other issues, people still blindly check them.

There is no winning. If people insist that they’re right and that I’m rude for closing the 25th issue that, ahem, reading 5 words would have avoided, I just block them and move forward.

> seeing every little comment as a personal attack

I’m patient when people open duplicate issues because they couldn’t find them, but this is different.

Imagine you’re talking to someone in person and you tell them “please don’t eat the cake” straight to their face, 4 times on the way to the kitchen. Then 5 minutes later they yell at me asking why the cake tastes like cardboard and glue.

Is that not completely disrespectful? I very much doubt you’ll think of them highly after that accident, unless they’re 5 year olds.

> in which way you see the people in this issue being assholes, particularly before the maintainer arrived and closed the issue without even beginning to understand the request?

I was talking about my own experience. As for him, it’s clear that he did understand the issue and he did not agree that it should be part of the player, for several reasons he then went on to explain.

I also get why one would want a player to also be able to cast videos, but then his suggestion to just use libmpv in a caster app made complete sense.

For entertainment purposes, I’ll give you another example of someone I encountered on my repos.

One guy opens 2 extremely long and conversational issues describing how my software is really ugly and it should be more like other software. Then went ahead suggesting that the other developer hasn’t updated his software for a while because he got lazy (their words), so I should just rip his code and improve it, disregarding mine.

This went back and forth for a while, eventually arriving at the solution they wanted: that miraculous feature I don’t want to implement and that they knew I didn’t want to implement. Closed and locked both issues, so they opened another one.

What am I supposed to do? I said no and you keep saying you know better.

Is it because I’m burned out or because they’re the usual OSS user who has nothing to offer and a lot to expect?

This isn't remotely similar. Nowhere is the MPV developer ( wm4) being unreasonable in that thread. And while wm4 was not exactly known for interpersonal skills, he was rarely wrong unlike Remi in this case in claiming things to be impossbile when they are not.