The Open Source Junkyard

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The Open Source Junkyard Benjamin Fleischer bf@benjaminﬂeischer.com github.com/bf4 twitter.com/hazula http://www.polleverywhere.com/devbenjamin

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Where do the gems we use come from?

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! ! ! !

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People. Like me and you.

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We depend on altruism ! ! ! ! • http://www.confreaks.com/videos/2901- rubyconf2013-maintaining-sanity

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Important code maintained by only a few

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So many ways to leave a gem behind

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There’s no gem maintainer hotline nor gem clearinghouse

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A tweet for help

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Maintainer Classiﬁeds http://stillmaintained.com/sferik/merb-admin

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Abandonment notice in README

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! ! ! ! Users ask about maintenance

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Posting on a list

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Leaving behind the abandoned

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Trusting a contributor

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Accidental ownership

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Github commit isn’t enough

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Taking Ownership • 1) Get repository (GitHub) commit / ownership • Need GitHub username. Add to access group. • 2) Get rubygems.org push access • Need email for rubygems.org account • gem owner -a dev@benjaminﬂeischer.com • 3) Rubyforge? Mailing List? Twitter account? IRC?

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Transferring ownership

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Curating contributors

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RubyGems.org can only do so much. It’s a lot of work. http://help.rubygems.org/discussions/questions/122-abandoned-gem-requesting-maintainership

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How do I complain help out?

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Bless a fork Otherwise there’s no place for people to contribute back to

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CodeTriage.com

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Let’s Discuss: ! github.com/howto-ruby/ rubygems-style-guide/wiki Benjamin Fleischer bf@benjaminﬂeischer.com github.com/bf4 twitter.com/hazula

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The Twitter Gem and Ruby Hero Erik Michaels-Ober • Further Reading: • http://rubyrogues.com/127-rr-erik-michaels-ober/ grep for maintain • ERIK: It was basically just a giant yak shave. I think I just started working on it and then I said… So I … and then just so I just became the de facto maintainer of that. • KATRINA: What’s the most challenging aspect of maintaining a big popular project like the twitter gem? • ERIK: I don’t know. To me, I love it.

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