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Comment by kssreeram | Hacker News Reader

"So make a careful choice when starting the development of a new open source project, don't pick something you are interested in today, but something you'll probably be interested in for the next decade."

+1 for that. Sustaining opensource projects is hard. I feel sad when I see that I've not been able to maintain my own opensource project (http://cspace.in) for more than a year.

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Wow, cspace looks like a really interesting project. The concept is explained well with connect(user, service) is like connect(ip, port) and shows its generic build-on-this power.

I've had problems with becoming demotivated and uninspired on open source projects that don't attract any other experienced developers, even to just shoot the shit about the design and implementation (even if they don't want to contribute code). I don't think this means one should feel bad, it just means the market isn't necessarily there, and as open source developers, we'd rather be coding than marketing. But still, the open source ecosystem as a whole is richer, even if slightly, for an open source release, even if it ends up being unmaintained.

Thanks.

I do hope to revive cspace sometime in 2010.

I feel the the issue with cspace is that at first glance people at first glance, usually percieve it as some sort of a secure IM, and the mainstream user base for IMs doesn't really care about security. For those of us who use it, it works well. I guess its primary user base is mostly made up of people (like me) who aren't too good with evangelizing for things they use.

That being said, I'm just as guilty as you for letting it bitrot. I always wanted to do something about cspace, but never got around doing anything :(

disclaimer: I used to work (a long time ago) for sreeram, on cspace.

I think it applies to any project, not just open source ones. When the going gets tough, and it always eventually get tough, you'll need personal interest or passion to get you through.

Projects which help in earning your living will do fine. You'll probably end up working on it everyday. On the other hand, it's harder to find time for projects which are not related to how you make a living. And, if you struggle to find time for a project, then it's going to be hard to sustain it.

Opensource projects typically fall in the latter category. The ideal situation is if you manage to establish some sort of connection between your pet project and your source of income.

edit: typos

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