"How to tell if a FLOSS project is doomed to FAIL"

Shlomi Fish <shlomif-ik1l9ssToec+JF/[email protected]> Sun, 21 Feb 2010 00:42:13 +0200
Newsgroups gmane.culture.hackers.israel
Message-ID <[email protected]>
--u5dWowfhDplytlbrV7frw06qaYzS9fLzJMXZrYQ
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Via Omer (CCed here) come these two links:

1. 
https://www.theopensourceway.org/wiki/How_to_tell_if_a_FLOSS_project_is_doomed_to_FAIL

2. 

http://ostatic.com/blog/measuring-fail-a-scorecard-for-evaluating-open-source-
projects

(broken link - shortened - http://is.gd/8P29j ).

Essentially, they are a score card for determining whether an open-source 
project is doomed to fail. It seemed mostly OK after I read it, although some 
things are surprising. For example, it says that the code should have a 
changelog , which Karl Fogel explains why it was made obsolete for most 
projects by more modern version control systems in Producing OSS:

http://producingoss.com/en/packaging.html

I do keep a Changes file for my CPAN distribution, but it's kinda like 
Freecell Solver's NEWS - the notable changes.

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Shlomi Fish       http://www.shlomifish.org/
Why I Love Perl - http://shlom.in/joy-of-perl

Deletionists delete Wikipedia articles that they consider lame.
Chuck Norris deletes deletionists whom he considers lame.

Please reply to list if it's a mailing list post - http://shlom.in/reply .

--u5dWowfhDplytlbrV7frw06qaYzS9fLzJMXZrYQ
Content-Type: text/html; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit




<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
</head>







<body style="background-color: #fff;">
<span style="display:none">&nbsp;</span>

<!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlStartT|**|-~-->
<div id="ygrp-mlmsg" style="position:relative;">
  <div id="ygrp-msg" style="z-index: 1;">
<!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlEndT|**|-~-->

    <div id="ygrp-text" >
      
      
      <p>Via Omer (CCed here) come these two links:<br>
<br>
1. <br>
<a href="https://www.theopensourceway.org/wiki/How_to_tell_if_a_FLOSS_project_is_doomed_to_FAIL">https://www.<wbr>theopensourceway<wbr>.org/wiki/<wbr>How_to_tell_<wbr>if_a_FLOSS_<wbr>project_is_<wbr>doomed_to_<wbr>FAIL</a><br>
<br>
2. <br>
<br>
<a href="http://ostatic.com/blog/measuring-fail-a-scorecard-for-evaluating-open-source-">http://ostatic.<wbr>com/blog/<wbr>measuring-<wbr>fail-a-scorecard<wbr>-for-evaluating-<wbr>open-source-</a><br>
projects<br>
<br>
(broken link - shortened - <a href="http://is.gd/8P29j">http://is.gd/<wbr>8P29j</a> ).<br>
<br>
Essentially, they are a score card for determining whether an open-source <br>
project is doomed to fail. It seemed mostly OK after I read it, although some <br>
things are surprising. For example, it says that the code should have a <br>
changelog , which Karl Fogel explains why it was made obsolete for most <br>
projects by more modern version control systems in Producing OSS:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://producingoss.com/en/packaging.html">http://producingoss<wbr>.com/en/packagin<wbr>g.html</a><br>
<br>
I do keep a Changes file for my CPAN distribution, but it's kinda like <br>
Freecell Solver's NEWS - the notable changes.<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
<br>
	Shlomi Fish<br>
<br>
-- <br>
------------<wbr>---------<wbr>---------<wbr>---------<wbr>---------<wbr>---------<wbr>-<br>
Shlomi Fish       <a href="http://www.shlomifish.org/">http://www.shlomifi<wbr>sh.org/</a><br>
Why I Love Perl - <a href="http://shlom.in/joy-of-perl">http://shlom.<wbr>in/joy-of-<wbr>perl</a><br>
<br>
Deletionists delete Wikipedia articles that they consider lame.<br>
Chuck Norris deletes deletionists whom he considers lame.<br>
<br>
Please reply to list if it's a mailing list post - <a href="http://shlom.in/reply">http://shlom.<wbr>in/reply</a> .<br>
</p>

    </div>
     

    <!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlStart|**|-~-->
    <div style="color: #fff; height: 0;">__._,_.___</div>

        
  
   
    <div id="ygrp-actbar" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; white-space: nowrap; color: #666; padding-top: 15px;">
      <div>
        <a href="mailto:shlomif-ik1l9ssToec+JF/[email protected]?subject=&quot;How to tell if a FLOSS project is doomed to FAIL&quot;">
          Reply to <span style="font-weight: 700;">sender</span></a>
          | <a href="mailto:[email protected]?subject=&quot;How to tell if a FLOSS project is doomed to FAIL&quot;">
        Reply to <span style="font-weight: 700;">group</span></a>
      </div>

                <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hackers-il/message/5110;_ylc=X3oDMTM0bmtmbnBoBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzE4NTczMzIEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDA2NzY0BG1zZ0lkAzUxMTAEc2VjA2Z0cgRzbGsDdnRwYwRzdGltZQMxMjY2NzA1NzQ4BHRwY0lkAzUxMTA-">Messages in this topic</a>
          (<span style="font-weight: 700;">1</span>)
          </div> 
<!------- Start Nav Bar ------>

<!-- |**|begin egp html banner|**| -->
<div id="ygrp-vital" style="background-color: #e0ecee; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 10px;">
      <span id="vithd" style="font-weight: bold; color: #333; text-transform: uppercase; ">Recent Activity:</span>

    <ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0; padding: 0; display: inline;">
                                                    </ul>
    
  <div style="clear: both; padding-top: 2px; color: #1e66ae;">
    <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hackers-il;_ylc=X3oDMTJlc2l1NW9uBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzE4NTczMzIEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDA2NzY0BHNlYwN2dGwEc2xrA3ZnaHAEc3RpbWUDMTI2NjcwNTc0OA--" style="border-right: 1px solid #000; padding-right: 5px; margin-right: 2px; text-decoration: none;">Visit Your Group</a>
    <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hackers-il/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJldWhvNXJyBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzE4NTczMzIEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDA2NzY0BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA250cGMEc3RpbWUDMTI2NjcwNTc0OA--" style="font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none;">Start a New Topic</a>
  </div>
</div>

              <div id="ygrp-mkp" style="border: 1px solid #d8d8d8; clear: both; float: left; font-family: Arial; margin: 5px 0 10px 0; padding: 0 10px;">
      <div id="hd" style="color: #628c2a; font-size: 85%; font-weight: 700; line-height: 122%; margin: 10px 0;">MARKETPLACE</div>
      <div id="ads" style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
                  <div class="ad" style="color: #628C2A; font-family: Arial; font-weight: 700; padding: 0 0;">
            <p><a href="http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=14kcp57a3/M=493064.13814333.13821539.13298430/D=groups/S=1705006764:MKP1/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1266712948/L=/B=CS2qF0SO5.U-/J=1266705748980590/K=tR_95KwTJllfuSr_RcvkIA/A=5922843/R=0/SIG=11ckn2mo6/*http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/green/">Going Green: Your Yahoo! Groups resource for green living</a></p>          </div>
                              </div>
    </div>
  
<div id="ft" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; margin-top: 5px; padding: 0 2px 0 0; clear: both;">
  <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTJkN3FzaDRqBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzE4NTczMzIEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDA2NzY0BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA2dmcARzdGltZQMxMjY2NzA1NzQ4" style="float: left;"><img src="http://l.yimg.com/a/i/us/yg/logo/us.gif" height="15" width="137" alt="Yahoo! Groups" style="border: 0;"/></a>
  <div style="color: #747575; float: right;">Switch to: <a href="mailto:[email protected]?subject=Change Delivery Format: Traditional" style="text-decoration: none;">Text-Only</a>, <a href="mailto:[email protected]?subject=Email Delivery: Digest" class="margin-rt" style="text-decoration: none;">Daily Digest</a> &bull; <a href="mailto:[email protected]?subject=Unsubscribe" style="text-decoration: none;">Unsubscribe</a> &bull; <a href="http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/" style="text-decoration: none;">Terms of Use</a></div>
</div>

<!-- |**|end egp html banner|**| -->

  </div> <!-- ygrp-msg -->

  <!-- Sponsor -->
  <!-- |**|begin egp html banner|**| -->
  <div id="ygrp-sponsor" style="width:160px; float:right; clear:none; margin:0 0 25px 0; background: #fff;">

<!-- Start Recommendations -->
<div id="ygrp-reco">
     </div>
<!-- End Recommendations -->



  </div>   <!-- |**|end egp html banner|**| -->

  <div style="clear:both; color: #FFF; font-size:1px;">.</div>
</div>

  <img src="http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=97359714/grpId=1857332/grpspId=1705006764/msgId=5110/stime=1266705748/nc1=4507179/nc2=3848640/nc3=5191955" width="1" height="1"> <br>

<div style="color: #fff; height: 0;">__,_._,___</div>
<!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlEnd|**|-~-->

</body>

<!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlStart|**|-~-->
<head>
  <style type="text/css">
  <!--
  #ygrp-mkp {
  border: 1px solid #d8d8d8;
  font-family: Arial;
  margin: 10px 0;
  padding: 0 10px;
}

#ygrp-mkp hr {
  border: 1px solid #d8d8d8;
}

#ygrp-mkp #hd {
  color: #628c2a;
  font-size: 85%;
  font-weight: 700;
  line-height: 122%;
  margin: 10px 0;
}

#ygrp-mkp #ads {
  margin-bottom: 10px;
}

#ygrp-mkp .ad {
  padding: 0 0;
}

#ygrp-mkp .ad a {
  color: #0000ff;
  text-decoration: none;
}
  #ygrp-sponsor #ygrp-lc {
  font-family: Arial;
}

#ygrp-sponsor #ygrp-lc #hd {
  margin: 10px 0px;
  font-weight: 700;
  font-size: 78%;
  line-height: 122%;
}

#ygrp-sponsor #ygrp-lc .ad {
  margin-bottom: 10px;
  padding: 0 0;
}

  a {
    color: #1e66ae;
  }

  #actions {
    font-family: Verdana;
    font-size: 11px;
    padding: 10px 0;
  }

  #activity {
    background-color: #e0ecee;
    float: left;
    font-family: Verdana;
    font-size: 10px;
    padding: 10px;
  }

  #activity span {
    font-weight: 700;
  }

  #activity span:first-child {
    text-transform: uppercase;
  }

  #activity span a {
    color: #5085b6;
    text-decoration: none;
  }

  #activity span span {
    color: #ff7900;
  }

  #activity span .underline {
    text-decoration: underline;
  }

  .attach {
    clear: both;
    display: table;
    font-family: Arial;
    font-size: 12px;
    padding: 10px 0;
    width: 400px;
  }

  .attach div a {
    text-decoration: none;
  }

  .attach img {
    border: none;
    padding-right: 5px;
  }

  .attach label {
    display: block;
    margin-bottom: 5px;
  }

  .attach label a {
    text-decoration: none;
  }
  
  blockquote {
    margin: 0 0 0 4px;
  }

  .bold {
    font-family: Arial;
    font-size: 13px;
    font-weight: 700;
  }

  .bold a {
    text-decoration: none;
  }

  dd.last p a {
    font-family: Verdana;
    font-weight: 700;
  }

  dd.last p span {
    margin-right: 10px;
    font-family: Verdana;
    font-weight: 700;
  }

  dd.last p span.yshortcuts {
    margin-right: 0;
  }

  div.attach-table div div a {
    text-decoration: none;
  }

  div.attach-table {
    width: 400px;
  }

  div.file-title a, div.file-title a:active, div.file-title a:hover, div.file-title a:visited {
    text-decoration: none;
  }

  div.photo-title a, div.photo-title a:active, div.photo-title a:hover, div.photo-title a:visited {
    text-decoration: none;
  }

  div#ygrp-mlmsg #ygrp-msg p a span.yshortcuts {
    font-family: Verdana;
    font-size: 10px;
    font-weight: normal;
  }

  .green {
    color: #628c2a;
  }

  .MsoNormal {
    margin: 0 0 0 0;
  }

  o {
    font-size: 0;
  }

  #photos div {
    float: left;
    width: 72px;
  }

  #photos div div {
    border: 1px solid #666666;
    height: 62px;
    overflow: hidden;
    width: 62px;
  }

  #photos div label {
    color: #666666;
    font-size: 10px;
    overflow: hidden;
    text-align: center;
    white-space: nowrap;
    width: 64px;
  }

  #reco-category {
    font-size: 77%;
  }

  #reco-desc {
    font-size: 77%;
  }

  .replbq {
    margin: 4px;
  }

  #ygrp-actbar div a:first-child {
   /* border-right: 0px solid #000;*/
    margin-right: 2px;
    padding-right: 5px;
  }

  #ygrp-mlmsg {
    font-size: 13px;
    font-family: Arial, helvetica,clean, sans-serif;
    *font-size: small;
    *font: x-small;
  }

  #ygrp-mlmsg table {
    font-size: inherit;
    font: 100%;
  }

  #ygrp-mlmsg select, input, textarea {
    font: 99% Arial, Helvetica, clean, sans-serif;
  }

  #ygrp-mlmsg pre, code {
    font:115% monospace;
    *font-size:100%;
  }

  #ygrp-mlmsg * {
    line-height: 1.22em;
  }

  #ygrp-mlmsg #logo {
    padding-bottom: 10px;
  }

  #ygrp-mlmsg a {
    color: #1E66AE;
  }

  #ygrp-msg p a {
    font-family: Verdana;
  }

  #ygrp-msg p#attach-count span {
    color: #1E66AE;
    font-weight: 700;
  }

  #ygrp-reco #reco-head {
    color: #ff7900;
    font-weight: 700;
  }

  #ygrp-reco {
    margin-bottom: 20px;
    padding: 0px;
  }

  #ygrp-sponsor #ov li a {
    font-size: 130%;
    text-decoration: none;
  }

  #ygrp-sponsor #ov li {
    font-size: 77%;
    list-style-type: square;
    padding: 6px 0;
  } 

  #ygrp-sponsor #ov ul {
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0 0 0 8px;
  }

  #ygrp-text {
    font-family: Georgia;
  }

  #ygrp-text p {
    margin: 0 0 1em 0;
  }

  #ygrp-text tt {
    font-size: 120%;
  }

  #ygrp-vital ul li:last-child {
    border-right: none !important; 
  } 
  -->
  </style>
</head>

<!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlEnd|**|-~-->
</html>
<!-- end group email -->


--u5dWowfhDplytlbrV7frw06qaYzS9fLzJMXZrYQ--