Russell Beattie mentions how much it sucks to feel guilty about not supporting your code:

I know it sounds horrible, but follow me on this. Once a week I get an email about some issue and I feel guilty about not updating my code or not working on improving something I published months ago (that now I’m no longer interested in). Feeling guilty sucks! Or I need to respond to help someone with an install or help figure out some random bug, or something else. Ugh! That’s not fun! That sucks! That isn’t hobby, that’s helpdesk! I mean, I like hearing from people who like my code (then again that means I have to take time to thank them for thanking me which is sort of pain) but this whole having to help people figure out something that many times you can’t even remember writing is a big PITA.

i totally understand russell’s point, i have felt the same way myself. working on open source can be much more grueling than other projects. the internet never sleeps, and popular projects have users that track you down. one way out is to declare open source software that is quickly hacked, but useful code to be under the OSS PROTOTYPE LICENSE.

We need a license that says something like “I agree, by using this code, never to bug author with any questions, comments, thanks or support-related issues after 2 months of release date when the author has moved on to other more interesting things to work on.”

right-on. heh, reminds me to update my thesis with these new developments now that i have submitted it to the MIT OSS center.

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