> Today's conception of open source is different from the original anyway. It used to be "we made this thing, here's the code" but now it's turned into some kind of weird parasocial thing more akin to Facebook.

I didn't agree with your comment when I glanced through it, but then further ahead in the discussion I stumbled upon a whole thread of people commenting that PRs generated by AI coding assistants are strealing merit, and even posters talking about the need to tell apart AI PRs from AI-free PRs with proof of work schemes just to feed the merit angle.

Crazy times we live in.

I explained GitHub to a friend as "like DeviantArt, but for code".

And it is true, but that just means the bar for expectations has been raised thanks to early open source success. Tarball drops don't cut it anymore (unless you're Alphabet, Inc.) and you actually have to foster a community around what you release in order to attract bug reports and contributions. And you need a code of conduct, and a code of conduct enforcement committee, and a steering committee or board of directors, and...