Bruce Burgess wrote a short insightful summary of what it was like to start an open source project. From the article:
The incompleteness, lack of documentation, and ugly code practices were, frankly, embarrassing. All of a sudden bMail became a daunting task — there was more to be done than could be accomplished by a single unpaid person. My milestones seemed far-reaching, and my forums were full of sysadmin 101 responses.
To top things off, I received a cease and desist letter about the bMail name, which turned out to be the same as an established Windows-based mass mailer. I was ready to abandon ship. It would have been easy to fold. After all, I had already accomplished my main goal of providing “usable” mailing list software for the band.
Positive public reaction, however, gave me new inspiration…
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