"value":"\n <p>Yesterday, I wrote about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oliverdavies.uk\/daily\/2024\/06\/13\/vetting-third-party-open-source-software\">some things I look for when evaluating open-source projects<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p>One thing I said was \"When was the most recent commit and release?\".<\/p>\n\n<p>If a project hasn't had many recent commits, it could be outdated or no longer supported.<\/p>\n\n<p>Alternatively, it could be considered feature complete and not getting new features, and only getting bug fixes and maintenance updates.<\/p>\n\n<p>I see this a lot with Vim plugins that were written several years ago and are now minimally maintained and updated, but getting no new features.<\/p>\n\n<p>This happens in the Drupal space, too, when people wrote a module for a project which they have since completed, or no longer work with that client or for that company.<\/p>\n\n<p>If there are at least commits for security compatibility, such as new versions of PHP or node, that's a sign the project is in a maintenance phase.<\/p>\n\n<p>If there are no recent commits, the project could be dead and I'd carefully consider if you want to add or use it.<\/p>\n\n<p>Something that could help is if maintainers are explicit about what state their project is in.<\/p>\n\n<p>Add a note to the README.md or CONTRIBUTING.md file saying if the project is feature complete or what the maintenance state is.<\/p>\n\n<p>If the project is no longer maintained, you can also document it and potentially archive the repository too to show that it will no longer be updated and to avoid confusion.<\/p>\n\n ",
"format":"full_html",
"processed":"\n <p>Yesterday, I wrote about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oliverdavies.uk\/daily\/2024\/06\/13\/vetting-third-party-open-source-software\">some things I look for when evaluating open-source projects<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p>One thing I said was \"When was the most recent commit and release?\".<\/p>\n\n<p>If a project hasn't had many recent commits, it could be outdated or no longer supported.<\/p>\n\n<p>Alternatively, it could be considered feature complete and not getting new features, and only getting bug fixes and maintenance updates.<\/p>\n\n<p>I see this a lot with Vim plugins that were written several years ago and are now minimally maintained and updated, but getting no new features.<\/p>\n\n<p>This happens in the Drupal space, too, when people wrote a module for a project which they have since completed, or no longer work with that client or for that company.<\/p>\n\n<p>If there are at least commits for security compatibility, such as new versions of PHP or node, that's a sign the project is in a maintenance phase.<\/p>\n\n<p>If there are no recent commits, the project could be dead and I'd carefully consider if you want to add or use it.<\/p>\n\n<p>Something that could help is if maintainers are explicit about what state their project is in.<\/p>\n\n<p>Add a note to the README.md or CONTRIBUTING.md file saying if the project is feature complete or what the maintenance state is.<\/p>\n\n<p>If the project is no longer maintained, you can also document it and potentially archive the repository too to show that it will no longer be updated and to avoid confusion.<\/p>\n\n ",