Open Source Project
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First of all, I would like to say (if anybody recognizes this screen name), many months ago I made a really bad decision. I had just written my first shareware application and I was looking for good (free) ways to market it, so I posted a message in this forum to try to advertise it. Of course, I was immediately accused of spamming (which I was). I thought I was just got that out in the air so no one thinks I'm spamming again. As much as I hate seeing spam in messsage board, I'm really ashamed that I sunk to doing that. After much consideration, I've decided to give back to the development community and make my product open-source, but I don't know how to release it. I think my first step is putting it on SouceForge, but after that, I'm really not sure which direction to go. I was wondering if anybody here had any insight on releasing an open-source project? I know (I think) my first step is placing it onto SourceForge, but, after that, I really have no idea how to draw attention to it. I had originally planned to sell and market it, but, after heavy consideration, I decided that my project could be much more if it were released into an open-source community. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank You, Casey.
Going open-source doesn't necessarily mean it *has* to go onto SourceForge. That's a great way for it get lost in the crowd since SourceForge is a well-known place for projects to go and die from neglect. If your project is really that good, then build a web site around it, market it and promote it as you would a commercial product. It just happens to also be open-source. If you don't want to manage the CVS (or whatever) bit, then you can host the source files on SourceForge but everything else should be done through a real web site. wdevs hosts projects and is run by some of the guys here so that'd be well-worth checking out.
The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity. - Harlan Ellison Awasu 2.2 [^]: A free RSS/Atom feed reader with support for Code Project. -- modified at 13:16 Monday 20th February, 2006
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That's actually a really good idea. Let me ask you this... I was considering submitting a story to a site like Digg.com to draw more attention to it. Would this be considered spamming? I'm not trying to sell anything, I'm just trying to get some interest in it.
dynam0k2atgmaildotcom wrote:
Would this be considered spamming?
Hell no. Digg is full of product announcements. Though I'd get somebody else to do it and I'd make sure the post to Digg is interesting and relevant to Digg. Then again, I avoid Digg these days. The comments gave me nightmares. regards, Paul Watson Ireland Feed Henry! K(arl) wrote: oh, and BTW, CHRISTIAN ISN'T A PARADOX, HE IS A TASMANIAN!
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First of all, I would like to say (if anybody recognizes this screen name), many months ago I made a really bad decision. I had just written my first shareware application and I was looking for good (free) ways to market it, so I posted a message in this forum to try to advertise it. Of course, I was immediately accused of spamming (which I was). I thought I was just got that out in the air so no one thinks I'm spamming again. As much as I hate seeing spam in messsage board, I'm really ashamed that I sunk to doing that. After much consideration, I've decided to give back to the development community and make my product open-source, but I don't know how to release it. I think my first step is putting it on SouceForge, but after that, I'm really not sure which direction to go. I was wondering if anybody here had any insight on releasing an open-source project? I know (I think) my first step is placing it onto SourceForge, but, after that, I really have no idea how to draw attention to it. I had originally planned to sell and market it, but, after heavy consideration, I decided that my project could be much more if it were released into an open-source community. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank You, Casey.
It's very rare to see someone own up for a mistake. You get a 5 for doing the right thing. Take Paul's advice for starters here. You can host it on source forge if you wish but doesn't that make it a "Project" that should be active and under development. If you post it here it opens up the source but doesn't obligate you to keep working on it. I could be all wrong too. But were I you post it here and see how it goes. One last piece of advice though. After you post your article don't just post here to tell everyone you published it. That will get you voted down again. If you do post here post some comments perhaps on what the project is/does/about and include a brief story that lead you from shareware/spammer to open source donator. I think that would make a good lounge post and it would give your article submission some well balanced visibility.
I only read CP for the articles. Code-frog System Architects, Inc.
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It's very rare to see someone own up for a mistake. You get a 5 for doing the right thing. Take Paul's advice for starters here. You can host it on source forge if you wish but doesn't that make it a "Project" that should be active and under development. If you post it here it opens up the source but doesn't obligate you to keep working on it. I could be all wrong too. But were I you post it here and see how it goes. One last piece of advice though. After you post your article don't just post here to tell everyone you published it. That will get you voted down again. If you do post here post some comments perhaps on what the project is/does/about and include a brief story that lead you from shareware/spammer to open source donator. I think that would make a good lounge post and it would give your article submission some well balanced visibility.
I only read CP for the articles. Code-frog System Architects, Inc.
Let me just relate how I went from shareware/spammer to open source donator. I've always wanted to start a "software company", but I never realized what was involved in doing so. I didn't have a lot of money, but I did have a prototype. I decided that I needed to be creative with my marketing, so I figured that if I posted messages in message boards that seemed like they were coming from a third party, I would gather more attention. Well, I quickly realized that all it would gather is the label "spam". I have a lot of faith in this project, and without sounding too full of myself, I feel it would be a shame if it were not made public. Around the same time, my computer crashed, and a lot of the applications I had on my computer were "borrowed", and I no longer had the original disks (Microsoft Office, etc.) A friend introduced me to Open Office, which I have been hooked on ever since I first installed it. The concept of open source software opened plenty of other doors, and I began realizing that the majority of my "commercial" applications had equal, if not better, open source equivalents. This is why I want to contribute this to the open-source community. For one thing, I don't have the time, money or resources to start a "software company". For another, I want to give my knowledge to environment that seems to be built around innovation and collaboration. What better place to incubate this project?
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dynam0k2atgmaildotcom wrote:
Would this be considered spamming?
Hell no. Digg is full of product announcements. Though I'd get somebody else to do it and I'd make sure the post to Digg is interesting and relevant to Digg. Then again, I avoid Digg these days. The comments gave me nightmares. regards, Paul Watson Ireland Feed Henry! K(arl) wrote: oh, and BTW, CHRISTIAN ISN'T A PARADOX, HE IS A TASMANIAN!
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doPaul Watson wrote:
Then again, I avoid Digg these days. The comments gave me nightmares.
Really? I've found digg far better than Slashdot. After many years of addiction, I'm Slashdot-free for nearly a week now. :-O
Tech, life, family, faith: Give me a visit. I'm currently blogging about: Connor's Christmas Spectacular! Judah Himango
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Let me just relate how I went from shareware/spammer to open source donator. I've always wanted to start a "software company", but I never realized what was involved in doing so. I didn't have a lot of money, but I did have a prototype. I decided that I needed to be creative with my marketing, so I figured that if I posted messages in message boards that seemed like they were coming from a third party, I would gather more attention. Well, I quickly realized that all it would gather is the label "spam". I have a lot of faith in this project, and without sounding too full of myself, I feel it would be a shame if it were not made public. Around the same time, my computer crashed, and a lot of the applications I had on my computer were "borrowed", and I no longer had the original disks (Microsoft Office, etc.) A friend introduced me to Open Office, which I have been hooked on ever since I first installed it. The concept of open source software opened plenty of other doors, and I began realizing that the majority of my "commercial" applications had equal, if not better, open source equivalents. This is why I want to contribute this to the open-source community. For one thing, I don't have the time, money or resources to start a "software company". For another, I want to give my knowledge to environment that seems to be built around innovation and collaboration. What better place to incubate this project?
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Paul Watson wrote:
Then again, I avoid Digg these days. The comments gave me nightmares.
Really? I've found digg far better than Slashdot. After many years of addiction, I'm Slashdot-free for nearly a week now. :-O
Tech, life, family, faith: Give me a visit. I'm currently blogging about: Connor's Christmas Spectacular! Judah Himango
Oh I never read /. comments unless I needed a Swedish flagellation. My problem with Digg comments, and in fact the story summaries and titles too, is the repeated use of the exclamation mark. It seems as though to get onto the front page you have to put three or more of them in the title and six or more in the summary. You also have to use words and phrases like "awesome", "huge", "oh my freakin god!!!!!!" and "like!, you know!, awesome!" "Dude" in reference to previous comments is also common. I thought I had left high school behind until I subscribed to Digg. regards, Paul Watson Ireland Feed Henry! K(arl) wrote: oh, and BTW, CHRISTIAN ISN'T A PARADOX, HE IS A TASMANIAN!
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Oh I never read /. comments unless I needed a Swedish flagellation. My problem with Digg comments, and in fact the story summaries and titles too, is the repeated use of the exclamation mark. It seems as though to get onto the front page you have to put three or more of them in the title and six or more in the summary. You also have to use words and phrases like "awesome", "huge", "oh my freakin god!!!!!!" and "like!, you know!, awesome!" "Dude" in reference to previous comments is also common. I thought I had left high school behind until I subscribed to Digg. regards, Paul Watson Ireland Feed Henry! K(arl) wrote: oh, and BTW, CHRISTIAN ISN'T A PARADOX, HE IS A TASMANIAN!
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Hey, that's true. I think a lot of that site's followers are young kids who like Kevin Rose (site founder and former TechTV/G4TV personality). So that's probably the source of the lack of maturity levels there.
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It is akin to Google Desktop Search. A user creates a standard set of "schemas" that they can attach to any file or folder. Once the schemas are attached, they can fill them out to provide information about the file or folder. I am actually currently using to organize my work. I created a class library schema and attached it to all of our class libraries so that I can organize and search them by language, purpose, developers, functions, etc. I also created a project schema and put all of the resources for each project into their folders, then attached schemas to them so I could organize them by project leader, due date, subject, etc. I create the schemas and I set the fields. I can perform searches for this metadata straight through Windows Explorer. The thinking behind going open-source is that if I release the code, users can still use the engine, but design the UI to fit their needs. It's being used at a motorcycle wheel shop right now to organize all of their blueprints. The search interface actually shows a picture of a wheel, with "fill in the blank" dimensions surrounding it as their search platform. I will post an article soon.
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First of all, I would like to say (if anybody recognizes this screen name), many months ago I made a really bad decision. I had just written my first shareware application and I was looking for good (free) ways to market it, so I posted a message in this forum to try to advertise it. Of course, I was immediately accused of spamming (which I was). I thought I was just got that out in the air so no one thinks I'm spamming again. As much as I hate seeing spam in messsage board, I'm really ashamed that I sunk to doing that. After much consideration, I've decided to give back to the development community and make my product open-source, but I don't know how to release it. I think my first step is putting it on SouceForge, but after that, I'm really not sure which direction to go. I was wondering if anybody here had any insight on releasing an open-source project? I know (I think) my first step is placing it onto SourceForge, but, after that, I really have no idea how to draw attention to it. I had originally planned to sell and market it, but, after heavy consideration, I decided that my project could be much more if it were released into an open-source community. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank You, Casey.
Yeah, spamming is stupid, but it takes a lot to own up to one's mistakes. So kudos for that.
dynam0k2atgmaildotcom wrote:
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Like Taka already said, build a website around it. Maybe host it on SF if you don't want to pay for the download bandwidth, but still keep the site on it. Also, if it's helpful to programmers, write a few articles on CP about it. CP has a lot of vivistors and is even linked to by places like MSDN. It's a great resource, use it. Jeremy Falcon
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Oh I never read /. comments unless I needed a Swedish flagellation. My problem with Digg comments, and in fact the story summaries and titles too, is the repeated use of the exclamation mark. It seems as though to get onto the front page you have to put three or more of them in the title and six or more in the summary. You also have to use words and phrases like "awesome", "huge", "oh my freakin god!!!!!!" and "like!, you know!, awesome!" "Dude" in reference to previous comments is also common. I thought I had left high school behind until I subscribed to Digg. regards, Paul Watson Ireland Feed Henry! K(arl) wrote: oh, and BTW, CHRISTIAN ISN'T A PARADOX, HE IS A TASMANIAN!
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Paul Watson wrote:
Oh I never read /. comments unless I needed a Swedish flagellation.
Hmmmm...?
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Paul Watson wrote:
Then again, I avoid Digg these days. The comments gave me nightmares.
Really? I've found digg far better than Slashdot. After many years of addiction, I'm Slashdot-free for nearly a week now. :-O
Tech, life, family, faith: Give me a visit. I'm currently blogging about: Connor's Christmas Spectacular! Judah Himango
I've been (mostly) Slashdot free for almost 6 months - and feel much better for it! :) You can do it to! ¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF!
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It is akin to Google Desktop Search. A user creates a standard set of "schemas" that they can attach to any file or folder. Once the schemas are attached, they can fill them out to provide information about the file or folder. I am actually currently using to organize my work. I created a class library schema and attached it to all of our class libraries so that I can organize and search them by language, purpose, developers, functions, etc. I also created a project schema and put all of the resources for each project into their folders, then attached schemas to them so I could organize them by project leader, due date, subject, etc. I create the schemas and I set the fields. I can perform searches for this metadata straight through Windows Explorer. The thinking behind going open-source is that if I release the code, users can still use the engine, but design the UI to fit their needs. It's being used at a motorcycle wheel shop right now to organize all of their blueprints. The search interface actually shows a picture of a wheel, with "fill in the blank" dimensions surrounding it as their search platform. I will post an article soon.
I'm waiting for it :)
Some of us walk the memory lane, others plummet into a rabbit hole
Tree in C# || Fold With Us! || sighist -
I've been (mostly) Slashdot free for almost 6 months - and feel much better for it! :) You can do it to! ¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF!
Ha, good for you.
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Oh I never read /. comments unless I needed a Swedish flagellation. My problem with Digg comments, and in fact the story summaries and titles too, is the repeated use of the exclamation mark. It seems as though to get onto the front page you have to put three or more of them in the title and six or more in the summary. You also have to use words and phrases like "awesome", "huge", "oh my freakin god!!!!!!" and "like!, you know!, awesome!" "Dude" in reference to previous comments is also common. I thought I had left high school behind until I subscribed to Digg. regards, Paul Watson Ireland Feed Henry! K(arl) wrote: oh, and BTW, CHRISTIAN ISN'T A PARADOX, HE IS A TASMANIAN!
adapted from toxcct:
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do-- modified at 13:38 Monday 20th February, 2006
Paul Watson wrote:
You also have to use words and phrases like "awesome", "huge", "oh my freakin god!!!!!!" and "like!, you know!, awesome!". "Dude" in reference to previous comments is also common. I thought I had left high school behind until I subscribed to Digg.
<California Accent> Maybe most of those dude are, like, from California. Once you read a most awesome article, you can't help but get stoked, and like, totally express yourself. </California Accent> Seriously though. That type of speak is actually very common in California. Even by those in their 20s and 30s. I speak that way too, although I try to hide it when posting here. But sometimes it leaks through, so try to imagine Keanu Reaves talking whenever you read my posts. Okay? :) -- modified at 14:46 Monday 20th February, 2006
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I've been (mostly) Slashdot free for almost 6 months - and feel much better for it! :) You can do it to! ¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF!
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Gah! I'm addicted to Slashdot. I need to lower my dosage to once every two days perhaps. I wonder if there's any SA (Slashdot Anonymous) :laugh: Edbert Sydney, Australia
There really should be :) It tooks me weeks to wean myself from it. ¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF!
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Paul Watson wrote:
Oh I never read /. comments unless I needed a Swedish flagellation.
Hmmmm...?
That crazy thing you northerners do where you sit in a sauna hitting each other with birch branches and then run naked through the snow and dive into freezing water. Bunch of sado machists I tell you. regards, Paul Watson Ireland Feed Henry! K(arl) wrote: oh, and BTW, CHRISTIAN ISN'T A PARADOX, HE IS A TASMANIAN!
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That crazy thing you northerners do where you sit in a sauna hitting each other with birch branches and then run naked through the snow and dive into freezing water. Bunch of sado machists I tell you. regards, Paul Watson Ireland Feed Henry! K(arl) wrote: oh, and BTW, CHRISTIAN ISN'T A PARADOX, HE IS A TASMANIAN!
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doI would like to point out that sauna beatings occur in Finland, and not in Sweden. ;)
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I would like to point out that sauna beatings occur in Finland, and not in Sweden. ;)
Next you will tell me you don't wear clogs. Hah! Not so fast Eskimo. regards, Paul Watson Ireland Feed Henry! K(arl) wrote: oh, and BTW, CHRISTIAN ISN'T A PARADOX, HE IS A TASMANIAN!
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