In 2019, I had the opportunity to take over a promising open source project that was at risk of becoming abandoned. The original developer had created a solid foundation but was unable to continue maintaining it. Recognizing the project's potential and the community's need, I stepped in to not only maintain but significantly expand both the codebase and the community around it.
+In 2019, I had the opportunity to take over a promising open source project called OhMyForm that was at risk of becoming abandoned. The original developer had created a solid foundation but was unable to continue maintaining it. Recognizing the project's potential and the community's need, I stepped in to not only maintain but significantly expand both the codebase and the community around it. After several years of successful development and growth, I made the decision to sunset OhMyForm in 2022 as the excellent Formbricks project had vastly exceeded my own ambitions and provided a superior alternative for the community.
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Transparency in decision-making and fund management built trust with the community, which proved essential for sustainable growth and support.
Future Directions
-Looking ahead, the project continues to evolve with several key initiatives:
+In 2022, after careful consideration of the project's trajectory and the emergence of more comprehensive alternatives, I made the decision to sunset OhMyForm. The excellent Formbricks project had vastly exceeded my own ambitions for OhMyForm and offered the community a superior solution with more features, better support, and a stronger development team.
+ +This decision reflects an important principle in open source stewardship: recognizing when another project better serves the community's needs and being willing to step aside rather than fragmenting efforts. I encouraged our users to migrate to Formbricks and worked to ensure a smooth transition for the community.
+ +The lessons learned from building and eventually sunsetting OhMyForm continue to inform my approach to open source development and community management:
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- Expanding the core team through formalized mentorship programs -
- Developing educational resources to lower the barrier to entry for new users -
- Exploring integration opportunities with complementary projects -
- Implementing a more structured feature planning process based on community input -
- Expanding the project's scope based on evolving user needs +
- The importance of clear communication during project transitions +
- How to responsibly wind down a project while supporting users +
- When to collaborate with or defer to other projects in the ecosystem +
- The value of focusing efforts where they can have the greatest impact +
- How to transfer community knowledge and relationships during transitions
The success of this project demonstrates how technical excellence combined with intentional community building can transform an at-risk open source project into a thriving ecosystem that benefits thousands of users while providing sustainable opportunities for contributors.
+The success of this project demonstrates how technical excellence combined with intentional community building can transform an at-risk open source project into a thriving ecosystem that benefits thousands of users while providing sustainable opportunities for contributors. It also shows the importance of responsible stewardship throughout a project's entire lifecycle, including its conclusion.