←back to thread

Ask HN: Abandoned/dead projects you think died before their time and why?

358 points ofalkaed | 1 comments | 11 Oct 25 22:16 UTC | HN request time: 0.331s | source

Just curious and who knows, maybe someone will adopt it or develop something new based on its ideas.
Show context
evbogue ◴[11 Oct 25 23:42 UTC] No.45553774[source]▶
Secure-Scuttlebot (the gossiped social network) died circa 2019 or 2024 depending who we ask. It died before it's time for various reasons including:

1. competing visions for how the entire system should work

2. dependence on early/experimental npm libraries

3. devs breaking existing features due to "innovation"

4. a lot of interpersonal drama because it was not just open source but also a social network

the ideas are really good, someone should make the project again and run with it

replies(2): >>45555278 #>>45557062 #
v3ss0n ◴[12 Oct 25 04:39 UTC] No.45555278[source]▶
So much drama there too, but it's designed to attract drmas
replies(1): >>45556642 #
znpy ◴[12 Oct 25 09:02 UTC] No.45556642[source]▶
Drama has killed the technological progress in open source, if you ask me.

Having seen what goes on in the foss world and what goes on in the large faang-size corporate world, no wonder the corporate world is light-years ahead.

replies(1): >>45557411 #
lifty ◴[12 Oct 25 11:35 UTC] No.45557411[source]▶
It is a fundamental constraint of consensus based organizations. You need hierarchy to move faster but that has other disadvantages.
replies(2): >>45557672 #>>45558411 #
1. znpy ◴[12 Oct 25 14:18 UTC] No.45558411[source]▶
Nah, it is not.

The core of the issue is that drama is a way to impose your views of the world.

In foss software you quite literally don’t have to agree. You can fork the software and walk your own path. You can even pull changes from the original codebase, most licenses allow that.

Consensus is only necessary if you care about imposing your views of the world onto others.