Have you ever found a GitHub project or anything that seemed nice and tempting to install until you dug a bit deeper?
What are some red flags that should detur anyone from installing and running something?
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"To use program xyz, sign up!
Requires cloud connectivity.
Support only through a Discord server
I recently deleted my Discord account. This is an immediate nope for me.
The install process requires one of:
- Running a command with npm
- Manually compiling binaries from source
- Manually installing dependencies
These aren’t bad per-se, but my experience has led me to associate these with spending a bunch of time trying to resolve errors and having to give up in the end and not install the software after all, so if there’s any alternatives that I could use I am trying those first.
“Ads, In-App Purchases”
That game is gonna be full-on enshitification.
I’ll see that and raise you a “app is free, but all functionality is paid, which you only find out after you have used the app for its intended purpose and now want the results of the work that you did, specifically when attempting to rescue files from your phone, for instance.”
I’ll also toss in “all functionality is paid on a subscription model that automatically renews unless you manually disable it and you have to buy at least in one year increments”
Yeah, in app purchases.
I really like the ‘free trial’ that requires your CC information and will begin billing you ‘soon’ unless you remember to cancel (and probably burn the card too).
That’s not the case at all. For ads, perhaps, but in application purchases? Many games (especially free to play games, of which there are many excellent ones) have purchases you can make in the game.
Helldivers 2 is an excellent game, and that has DLC packs and individual items you can purchase in game. So does World of Tanks (which is also free to play).
Even some perfectly normal applications have that tag, because there’s a shareware version (maybe with a launch nag “Ad”) and the full paid version (which may only cost a few quid), that you can upgrade to from within the free version. It still counts, even if it’s just a one time thing.
There are many scummy practices some game/application makers employ using ads or in-app purchases, but many don’t, and both types have that sort of label applied.
Honestly, I see that label applied to basically everything these days, so I just ignore it and judge the application based on the nuance of how their monetisation is presented.
Are you really using world of tanks as a good example of in app purchases?
“releases” on a GitHub repository containing no code
“Update/Accept or Remind me later”
Evidence of vibe-coding. Em dashes and emojis sprinkled throughout the documentation? Code with inline comments pointlessly describing some change, as if you want to know what that block of code used to do more than what it actually does?
It’s vibe-coded garbage by someone who doesn’t know how to code. Stay far away.
inline comments pointlessly describing some change, as if you want to know what that block of code used to do more than what it actually does?
Oh, shit, am AI.
Same, but only after my boss decides to change the functionality for the third time in half a year.
Omfg Gemini loves to add tons of comments on already self explanatory code. It’s super annoying.
I have a solution to that:
🌈✨ Stop using AI to code. ✨🌈
That ship has sailed. The question is how to use AI to code, for every project there’s a sweet spot and it rarely is 0% or 100%.
You really don’t need to. Nobody is forcing you.
And if they are, seriously considering finding another place of work.
I very much enjoy using AI for all the biloilerplate, test cases, suggestions, etc. It really makes me more productive, hard metrics behind it. Nobody is forcing me to, they just provide the license and let us use our judgment.
I honestly can’t think of a project where 0% AI would be better. For 100% maybe a very trivial PoC, but even that would require at least a code revision.
So, as with many things, use in moderation is fine.
Having no user manual. A user manual is essential. A blurb about what it is and how to build it doesn’t count. And please, integrate it with the software, OS, or at least distribute a readme alongside. So much offline software assumes you have a 100% stable internet connection for online help. Also, please don’t throw up a wiki and rely on your users to do it.
This might be asking too much, but it wouldn’t hurt to pay attention to principles of good technical writing as well. A well-written user manual brings your users a great deal of joy.
User manuals, I remember those, fondly. Unfortunately a pretty dead concept these days, but certainly a green flag if there is one, but absence is not a red flag.
A readthedocs.io entry is also a green flag (you can always download it for later offline…).
The size of the download button
Whenever they start with “I built XXX”. People who write their own code say “I wrote”.
Eh, disagree on that one. Even if I write every bit of the code myself, producing good working software involves a lot more than just writing code. Just makes “building” feel like a better descriptor.
“A user you’ve blocked has previously contributed to this repository.”
The build is failing on main. Or they don’t have a build process at all.
Ah, sounds like my workplace.
