The Open Source Freeloader's Anthem

Description

A four-panel meme using the 'All the Things!' character from the webcomic 'Hyperbole and a Half'. The character is a crudely drawn pink figure with wide, manic eyes and a tuft of blonde hair. In the first panel, a single character enthusiastically holds up a broom and shouts, 'WHAT DO WE WANT?'. In the second panel, a crowd of these characters responds with 'OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE!'. The third panel returns to the single character, who asks, 'AND WHO'S GOING TO BUILD AND MAINTAIN IT?'. In the final panel, the crowd cheerfully shouts back, 'SOMEONE! (NOT ME LOL)'. The meme uses the classic protest chant format to satirize a common issue in the open-source community: the bystander effect. It highlights the widespread desire for free, high-quality software without a corresponding willingness from the majority of users to contribute to its development, maintenance, or funding. This creates a significant burden on a small number of volunteer maintainers, leading to project unsustainability and maintainer burnout, a critical issue for the global software supply chain

Comments

Anonymous ★ Top Pick Open source runs on the same principle as a potluck dinner where 99% of attendees show up empty-handed, confidently expecting a feast, and then complain that the free food isn't enterprise-grade

Anonymous ★ Top Pick

Open source runs on the same principle as a potluck dinner where 99% of attendees show up empty-handed, confidently expecting a feast, and then complain that the free food isn't enterprise-grade
Anonymous

Open source: where the feature requests scale horizontally but the maintainer capacity is a single-threaded event loop with no back-pressure
Anonymous

We've all starred that repo we'll definitely contribute to someday, right after we finish migrating from the framework we complained wasn't maintained enough
Anonymous

The open source paradox: everyone wants to stand on the shoulders of giants, but nobody wants to be the chiropractor keeping those giants upright. We've all been in that architecture review where someone suggests 'just use this OSS library' without considering that its last commit was 3 years ago and the sole maintainer now works at a FAANG company with a non-compete clause covering anything remotely related to their side projects
Anonymous

Our build‑vs‑buy framework: buy nothing, build nothing, depend on everything - and hope the single unpaid maintainer cancels their PTO
Anonymous

Open source: Millions of users chanting for freedom, a dozen maintainers silently paying the freedom tax
Anonymous

Open-source strategy: use it everywhere, contribute nowhere; 99.99% uptime required, $0 budget. SLA = a GitHub issue titled “URGENT” and hope the maintainer’s weekend is free
@qtsmolcat 2y

Fr tho
@LionElJonson 2y

💀
@azizhakberdiev 2y

At least we can donate to support open source. I mean someone will donate (not me again LOL)
1. @RiedleroD 2y
  
  I do donate
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  https://t.me/devs_chat/89576
  
  @picatsv 2y
  
  wikipedia is funded by spooky third parties already, IA will definitely need some dough for the whole lawsuits thing though
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  isn't that already over? regardless, you can vote once I open the poll
2. @SamsonovAnton 2y
  
  Whether one can or cannot donate money to a specific project depends on which payment types are accepted by the receiving entity and which of them are available for the potential donor.
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  paypal to paypal communication no but you're right, sometimes moving money is a huge fucking hassle
  
  @ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y
  
  Especially if 30% or so goes to some rich ass company like paypal or patreon
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  yea
  
  @azizhakberdiev 2y
  
  legal robbery, what's wrong with it?
  
  @ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y
  
  The fact that sheeple say “nothing to do against, lets do it as is”
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  remember, it's very illegal to say I'm going to shoot elon musk
  
  @ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y
  
  For real? Not just the president or something?
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  death threats are illegal in general
  
  @ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y
  
  I am gonna find you and kill you
  
  @azizhakberdiev 2y
  
  surely verbal threat is not illegal that much
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  no, they're pretty illegal.
  
  @azizhakberdiev 2y
  
  only if it is considered that something is behind those words. If it is only just a joke or part of some rude speech then it is rather a violation of etiquette
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  depends on the country and whether the judge is nice
  
  @ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y
  
  A friend of me got caught in Austria for delivering drugs to his own address 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️. The judge was like “I don’t believe you would have taken it, case is dismissed”. (At least if he’s story is true)
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  lmao yeah drug-related laws are handwaved as much as possible here.
  
  @ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y
  
  Why tho?
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  why not? people know it's harmless
  
  @ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y
  
  It was some modified version of crack or something that is technically not the same molecule or something and its supposed to be “legal”
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  lmao aight. still, makes sense
  
  @ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y
  
  In the US afaik you have to be actually in fear of your life. But anybody can claim that soo….
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  yup. cops do it all the time
  
  @ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y
  
  Lmao
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  never ever use data from flightradar to track his private jet and predict where he lands next
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  don't wait near the airport with a shotgun to make quick work of him
  
  @ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y
  
  Lmao
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  that'd be very illegal and you'd be arrested, taking your freedom away, for what? freeing millions of others from this joke of a billionaire?
  
  @ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y
  
  Hey Elon is not a joke he is a very serious businessman
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  he's going to have a very serious problem once he lands in an austrian airport is what I can't say because it's very illegal and I'm a lawful citizen
  
  @ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y
  
  According to Austrian law how fucked am I due to my previous message to you?
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  not at all, as long as nobody sues you
  
  @ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y
  
  Cool. Did you know catcalling in Austria is illegal too?
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  yes actually
  
  @ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y
  
  I just recently heard it and I was like “What the hell as if there is a law for that”
  
  @ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y
  
  Will you sue me?
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  maybe 😳👉👈
  
  @ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y
  
  Oh no then I need to hurry up /s
  
  @SamsonovAnton 2y
  
  As of 2013: PayPal does not keep a list of countries where it does not offer its services. However, a comparison of the United Nations list of member states and the PayPal list of countries with some service as of May 2013 reveals 28 countries without service. These are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Cote D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Paraguay, Saint Lucia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Monaco, Moldova, Montenegro, Myanmar, Pakistan, Timor-Leste, Uzbekistan, and Zimbabwe. And you also have to have some means of putting money there, which is also hard when you are banned from Visa and MasterCard.
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  yea :/
  
  @SamsonovAnton 2y
  
  By the way, same holds true for contributing source code. That is, the ability to contribute source code depends on the ways a project accepts contributions. For example, if a project is hosted on GitHub and accepts their pull requests only, and you happen to be blocked on GitHub due to being featured on the US SDN list, you will have some hard time upstreaming your changes (there are obvious workarounds for that, but you have to be extra motivated to get through).
@picatsv 2y

it's never over
@RiedleroD 2y

no :/
1. @ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y
  
  You know in crypto/nfts you can make built in rules like “each transaction pays 1% to the owner or each sale” or something
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  some currencies support that, yeah. it's called a "smart contract" and it's the stupidest shit I've ever heard
  
  @ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y
  
  Yes that thing
  
  @ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y
  
  Its bs
@azizhakberdiev 2y

too unstable to be optimal
@azizhakberdiev 2y

still crypto is just another layer of transactions, even if sender has an easy way to exchange crypto for money, receiver doesn't have necessarily, or vice versa

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The Open Source Freeloader's Anthem

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