Comment by Sir_Cmpwn
9 years ago
I would completely understand and agree if they had a rational reason for forking, but they don't. I have a very low opinion of unwarranted forks.
9 years ago
I would completely understand and agree if they had a rational reason for forking, but they don't. I have a very low opinion of unwarranted forks.
Why does somebody forking need to justify that their fork is warranted based on your standards?
They don't, but I'm free to express my distate for them if they do. That goes for much in life.
Forking is not a decision to be taken lightly. Even the most just fork will fracture the community and weaken the software's development. Contributors are now being asked to take sides and both sides are getting fewer contributions. The stress this puts on the original maintainers is also non-trivial.
Look at ffmpeg/libav. It forked for similar reasons on the surface, but in reality it was to forcibly take control of the vernerable project over petty disagreements. For years the users and developers suffered alike as libav was shipped by default in Debian due to politics and received subpar workmanship and more security vulnerabilities that were fixed on slower schedules, all while taking contributors and users away from ffmpeg. After nearly a decade libav is finally dead in the water and ffmpeg is becoming the default on Debian again, but not after lots and lots of damage to the project.
On the other hand, you have examples like nodejs/iojs, where there were much more tangible reasons and alternative solutions were explored longer and more earnestly, and they regretfully were forced to fork for the good of the ecosystem. And they were right, eventually the two projects merged together under better oversight.
But the gitea folks do not have nearly as much clout behind their efforts IMO, and as a result their move to fork is extremely harmful to gogs development.