/kbin meta

Oh this is no big deal at all (because your code is already open source)! I've dealt with similar situations at businesses before and it's just a matter of including the correct licenses and annotating the code where appropriate.

Let's say you used some AGPLv3 (strongest copyleft license) licensed code and you're not distributing your code under that same license. How do you use the AGPLv3 code in your code even though you're using say, Apache 2.0 license? The simplest way is to move that AGPLv3 licensed code into it's own folder/file(s) and put that license in there along with it. Also make sure you add a note about this in your LICENSE file and indicate that if someone includes that specific code in their own implementation they'll need to adhere to the AGPLv3.

Some FOSS licenses are incompatible with each other but I don't think you have that issue. For stuff like the Zip license, Apache license, MIT, and similar licenses where you must "give credit" just add comments surrounding that code saying where it came from, what license it uses, and also include references to it in the LICENSE file.

Loads of FOSS repos have complex stuff like this! It's a bit tedious for sure but it's not rocket science. You just have to do your homework and basically, "write everything down" (giving everyone credit and paying close attention to special cases like the AGPLv3).

Every single thread or comment I see from you further cements the image of a good dude.

Mistakes happen, how we handle it defines us, and you've handled this the best way possible.

I feel like you being this transparent about the whole development process is really going to help you earn the users' trust :)

It was a mistake and you went about this the right way. You're doing an amazing job!

Transparency matters. Even if it comes a little bit late, its good to see the ability to admit a fault. Btw, thanks for allowing us all to hijack your once upon a time small website @ernest lol

Thank you very much for the transparency

Although I'm parroting other's sentiments, I really do appreciate the transparency you have shown. Keep up the good work!

You can only be honest like this and do your best! Thanks for all your hard work!

@ernest I appreciate the transparency on this. Don't beat yourself up too much though, we all make mistakes and this one is easily fixable with attribution.

I feel a lot more comfortable with the developer of kbin (@ernest) than the Lemmy devs.

Here, he messed up by not giving attribution for some code, but the transparency and remedy of the error are appreciated.

It’s nice to see something that builds trust as opposed to burning it down like at #Reddit

#fediverse #kbin

Don't be so hard on yourself. Shit like this happens.

Completely understandable IMHO. Good on you for being open and honest!

Appreciate the transparency Ernest.

I'm glad you're owning this as you are. I was also encouraged by the reference to assuming good intent (or good faith, WP:AGF) at your repo. I know that this is terribly embarrassing and difficult, but it's also something that can be amicably resolved and become a really powerful lesson for everyone.

Software development can be a pretty messy business. In my context, we've been trying to be much much more careful with copyrights and licensing. It's much easier to make such mistakes and people realize.

Heck, I spent two days last week tracking down some nasty memory and resource leaks. Did sone research online. Turns out that an intern, about a year ago, tried to resolve a problem by straight up copying a hefty amount of code from stack exchange. This was a doozy too. It was performing some coding gymnastics most people aren't even well acquainted with. It seemed like it solved the problem though, so copy-paste-commit.

Copy paste. Copy paste. It can be the bane of so many problems.

Take care of this, Ernest. Do right by the author. And the world is a better place for it.

Thanks, Ernest. You’re good people. 😊

Good on you for being so transparent! Very well handled mate.

No, this time you made a minor, easily-fixed mess-up that someone else (whose user name definitely checks out) decided to magnify far beyond what was necessary.

Side note: while I was writing this comment, sitting in the sun, I could see the display on my phone flickering! Strange. I normally don't see flicker. Is the sun hitting the camera causing a malfunction or something?

Regular and honest updates is what most platforms sorely lack. Thank you for this post! Things like this go a long way in cementing what big-name alternative makes it and which do not.

You handled this extremely well, especially in the face of someone so clearly looking for things to be outraged by. LitigiousEmma had no reason to be that aggressive right out of the gate and comes off as someone that the Open Source community would be significantly better off without.