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The title took you aback, right? I know. Why am I shooting for such a title when the whole world immerses itself in Open Source? Because that immersion can be short-lived and false.
We are often intrigued by anything and everything that is portrayed online. But we seldom understand that the web also promotes Distorted Expectations, especially in the case of development and open source. We just got past the month of HacktoberFest, the most-popular haul of open-source contributions. Every year, countless newbies start their open-source journey during this period and withdraw once the fest is over.
Before we dive deep into today’s main talk and call out the potential cons, let’s first understand:
What exactly is Open Source?
Open-source software is the kind of software whose entire codebase is available to the public. Suppose the code for an open-source project is available on, say, GitHub. Being open-source means that your source code is open to the public. You can now view the code, freely inspect the code, and even make changes. On the other hand, proprietary or closed-source software is the one whose code remains hidden and is accessible only to the team within.
What is the Hype for Open Source even?
Open source contributions have become the biggest fad and flex in our developer communities. The social media timelines of every tech influencer and open-source fanatic are full of posts on open-source.
The hype I’m talking about includes all the social media posts and articles that display its benefits, ways of starting, the latest drives and findings, driving FOMO (yes, that too!), and much more. Especially now that we’ve just gone past HacktoberFest 2022, social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn are flooded with posts Open Source.
All these posts and talks have onboarded thousands of developers to open source, no doubt.
But the hype is so big that, at times, every third or fourth post on my feed is about someone sending or receiving swags. This is good actually, but only if these are viewed as a source of positive motivation. It becomes fake only when this hype turns into compulsion and FOMO.
Then how can the Open Source Hype really be Fake?
Yes, Open Source is a great way to learn development, collaborate with other developers, solve various problems, and have fun too! However, the false and pretentious hype to gather metrics and swags distorts the true meaning of it.
”Dude, You don’t contribute to open source? What’d you write in your resume? Yo, these repos allow easy merge. Claim that HacktoberFest t-shirt now!” Do you believe these compulsions to be true?
Go back to the time you started open source. What provoked you to do so? Your interest? If yes, awesome! If not, was it some kind of compulsion or FOMO from the web? Have you ever felt your open source journey to be pressurized or short-lived? Do you enjoy contributing? The answers themselves reveal the truth.
What glitters is not gold, and in tech, everyone’s gold is different. Open source may or may not be your gold. If your open-source journey is an outcome of external compulsions and you’re not enjoying it, then sooner or later, you’re going to quit. Such facts need to be called out as these, to be honest, are for the betterment of (y)our development and open source journey.
Open sourcing just for the sake of open source is not open source.
5 Reasons Why the Open Source Hype is Fake
1. Fauxpen Projects
Faux is a French word meaning ‘Fake’, hence Fauxpen meaning Fake Open. Open source contribution and moderation are purposeful only when the project is truly open source. Many false open-source projects keep emerging where the main focus is to gather people, initiate a talk, get stars, gain followers, and whatnot.
You must’ve heard — “What sells is sold.” That is not always true, though. Most of the time, projects getting the most retweets or mentions are not representative of real work nor is the moderator with more followers a better one.
During HacktoberFest in October, many GitHub repositories emerged with such motives. Thousands of people contributed to those repositories, merged their PRs, and returned home with a HacktoberFest t-shirt. At the end of the day, that repo didn’t put forth a product, nor did the contributors learn anything.
That is not what open source is meant to be. These false projects only add up to the open-source hype, if nothing else.
2. The Show-Off
Another example of spreading distorted expectations over the community.
The urge to impress others, get appreciation, and boast superiority makes people do things they don’t even like or understand. In the same context, beginners often get into open-source without understanding it. Neither do they contribute purposefully, nor do they upskill in any way. Their only goal is to boast and collect easily achievable metrics. But is that of any real worth?
This point resonates with the same context I made in the first ‘Fauxpen projects’ point. The only difference is — the previous targeted projects as a whole, this point targets an individual. There is a huge difference between purposefully contributing only for amassing GitHub stars and swags.
3. Imposter Syndrome
People often end up making decisions that are driven by a sense of fear. Fear of missing out, lagging behind the masses, not being accepted among the community, and whatnot. This is what we call ‘Imposter Syndrome.’
Many feel compelled to contribute to open source just because people around them are doing so, even if they do not find it exciting enough. Rather than being portrayed as a community-led project-making and learning method, open source is shown as a sure-shot way of getting jobs, success, swags, and possibly community acceptance. Meh!
4. Fake Influencers
Everyone is online. Everyone is influenced, and you are too. But are you influenced by the right person? Especially in the area of open source, which is a vast sector of technology itself, there are a bunch of fake influencers. Understand this with an example:
A person with thousands of followers creates a repository with just a Readme file, announces it as an open-source project, and invites PRs. As you’re influenced and compelled to contribute, you add a few words to that readme, create a PR, and get it merged.
Where exactly did you learn anything? Did you solve any actual problems? Did the moderator host have any real value? No. In the end, the moderator gets a lot of stars, visibility, and popularity. Both sides pretend, and both sides lose.
FAKE open source project. FAKE moderators. FAKE contributors. Who’s winning, actually? Think, identify, arrange proof of work, follow, and contribute.
5. Greedy Contribution
This particular reason is driven by all the other factors we discussed. Fake influencers, fake projects, the imposter syndrome, and the urge to show off all drive their power from the source ‘Greed’. Human psychology has talked enough about greed, and you know what it does.
The greed for open source contribution may be for GitHub stars, charts, social media posts, resume metrics, community acceptance, and more. It’s okay, though. It’s okay if your contributions are meaningful, you have fun, and you take something out of them. But useless-namesake-contribution to open source combined with greed is the worst combination.
What’s the goal then?
“The only way to be a real developer is to contribute to open source.” — No, it’s not. There are countless ways to become a successful developer. Contributing or not contributing to open source isn’t the problem. The peer pressure from various sources telling us that we should be contributing is invalid. The point is — all of it should not exist, but sadly, it does.
If and when you start diving into the open-source sea, keep in mind the following:
Never contribute to open source with a sense of showing off.
Do not jump into open source just because others are doing it. Listen to your call: Interests and Needs.
Never follow with blindfolds. Doesn’t matter if someone has thousands of followers or if a repo is super popular.
Identify fake projects and moderators. Contribute to projects that are truly open source and have meaning.
Moreover, we all know that open source is amazing. It has uncountable positives, but only if you negate its fake hype among the web communities.
Fuel yourself with true open source. Be a true Contributor.
This blogpost was originally posted on Fountane.com - FuelEd by Fountane