My first ever published Open Source code - My story (2min read)
A month ago I published my first ever Open Source code.
I advertised it here on Steemit.com too:
https://steemit.com/dao/@johnerfx/thedao-token-price-ticker--google-chrome-extension
It was TheDAO token price ticker extension for Google Chrome browser, which was very useful to me at that time.
I never expected it to get big and indeed it didn't. Something like 20 people installed it and I personally think it is quite an achievement for me. Actually I am very proud that I managed to create something useful for others, not only for me.
It even earned me 0.66 SBD which makes it even more COOL!
I like making Chrome extensions, but I don't believe in my coding skills much enough yet, so I don't share my tools. I am the only one using them and some of them are actually very, VERY useful to me, and those are not only tickers :).
TheDAO ticker was actually small, easy and good enough so I decided to share it as an experiment, barrier breaking decision and bring some of my own content to the Inernet via GitHub and steemit.com (I wouldn't mind getting some of this magic Internet money for it :D).
I started thinking if I could create something for steemit.com too. So I checked Google Chrome Web Store for "steem" keyword and this is what I have found there:
It looks very FAMILIAR!!
This is steem ticker that partially uses my code under the hood. I had to install it and check the source code for myself, because I couldn't believe it.
At first I got very angry, what the hell, someone used my work! Why? How could someone do this to me :(?
But then I calmed down and started laughing. My first ever published piece of very "huge" code (almost 50 lines combined) just got used in another project.
This sounds COOL and made me even prouder.
After all this was Open Source and MIT licensed so anyone can do whatever he or she wants with it and I was inspired a little bit too by others people code during creating it. The are many discussions right now about copycats and such things. And there are cases when copying should be totally acceptable like here, so I am fine with it.
But this example actually pisses me off a bit anyway, because it intentionally uses images from my repository that are not even related to the STEEM topic and code still has variable names like 'dao'.
Comment line even states I created whole code but my original is a little different :)
The author seems to be from China so maybe language barrier is the reason here, but come on! If I decided to copy something, tweak it a bit and publish it, I make sure informations are relevant and line up nicely with the intensions of the tool.
I wondered if this extension has been advertised on steemit.com, but I didn't find anything.
What do you guys think about my story? I still have smile on my face ;)
P.S. Sorry for my English, feel free to correct it in the comments. I would be grateful.
focus on the positive. You wrote some code (which is fairly trivial) which someone else found useful. It's all good, be happy.
I noticed that one yesterday after I published an extension there too (steem related, will break the news in the next days). I didn't know that one used your code but it's nice that your work contributes to something else that what you planned for it initially. Good job, upvoted you!
Also, thumbs up for your modesty in this whole story!
I actually decided to create my own STEEM price ticker:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@johnerfx/steem-assets-price-ticker-google-chrome-browser-extension
:)
man this is fantastic. I am just starting to learn some coding and your story is an inspiration - keep doing what you're doing!
Also, I wouldn't worry too much about this example because as other people have said imitation is the greatest form of flattery - you should be proud!
Imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Congratulations for making this and for being positive about it and turning it into something that can grow even more. I bet if you make a cool Steem related plugin and post it, you'll get many upvotes :)
Thank you. I was thinkig about publishing my own steem price ticker this time without "dao flavour" in it ;) but then I decided not to since there is "one" already. The one mentioned in this article. I have other related steemit extension ideas, will try to focus on them
I would love to be able to see someone's SP (and other info) next to their username when browsing. Maybe an extension could achieve this?
Upvoted
Hi! This post has a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of 9.4 and reading ease of 62%. This puts the writing level on par with Michael Crichton and Mitt Romney.