Support only through a Discord server

"Ads, In-App Purchases"

That game is gonna be full-on enshitification.

Evidence of vibe-coding. Em dashes and emojis sprinkled throughout the documentation? Code with inline comments pointlessly describing some change, as if you want to know what that block of code used to do more than what it actually does?

It's vibe-coded garbage by someone who doesn't know how to code. Stay far away.

"Call us for pricing"

"releases" on a GitHub repository containing no code

Requires cloud connectivity.

The size of the download button

"To use program xyz, sign up!

• It's not already in my distro's package manager

• A github project with 1000 open issues and no commits for 3 years.

• curl | sh installation method
• vomit-colored website, vomit-colored developer avatars, or more obvious: AGENTS.MD in the repo
• compiling yourself is "unsupported"/"not recommended"
• the official website aggressively advertising the company's SAAS which makes it look like their opensource software is actually paid product
• github issues using convoluted template, instead of letting me write freeform text

Venture capital funding. The plan is always to do a rug pull. Though if it properly freely licensed and the code is reasonable enough to be forked, it's less worrying but still risky. It's better to work with honest people.

• New post about a promising selfhosted app
• looks inside
• em dashes, emojis, release in last 24h with 35 commits since.

I fucking swear, if only vibe coders would ACTUALLY write up their own posts about THEIR OWN SOFTWARE, many would not act harsh towards them as much as it happens.

Whenever they start with "I built XXX". People who write their own code say "I wrote".

If the project maintainer has a policy of "no politics allowed."

Rather than a policy more along the lines of "be respectful"

The repo does not actually contain the source code, instead a link to download from a different site.

Something I ran into just now was AI generated Imagery in Docs or as an Icon.
I am not even that Anti AI as many on here I feel like. But this is a sure fire way to show how much you don't give a shit about your project. Just use emojis or some shit which is ironically even less work but somehow makes it seem more deliberate.

Having no user manual. A user manual is essential. A blurb about what it is and how to build it doesn't count. And please, integrate it with the software, OS, or at least distribute a readme alongside. So much offline software assumes you have a 100% stable internet connection for online help. Also, please don't throw up a wiki and rely on your users to do it.

This might be asking too much, but it wouldn't hurt to pay attention to principles of good technical writing as well. A well-written user manual brings your users a great deal of joy.

“A user you’ve blocked has previously contributed to this repository.”

"Update/Accept or Remind me later"

The install process requires one of:

• Running a command with npm
• Manually compiling binaries from source
• Manually installing dependencies

These aren't bad per-se, but my experience has led me to associate these with spending a bunch of time trying to resolve errors and having to give up in the end and not install the software after all, so if there's any alternatives that I could use I am trying those first.

GitHub repo that has "pm me on telegram" instead of code

A rule of thumb I use is how desperate the software is to tell you the weather even when you never asked for it or even set it up to report it.

The build is failing on main. Or they don't have a build process at all.

Signing-in before being able to use a FREE software.

-glares at Canva after buying Affinity -

Only Linux install option is .deb

"This project has been archived on [10+ years ago]. It is now Read Only."

or

Last commit 5+ years ago

Cant remember what they are off the top of my head, but there's been a couple of times I wanted to download a FOSS program, but it was only available to install through the Microsoft store.

"Ask me later" instead of "no"

Requires weird IDE to build

I shifted 8 GB of files to an older machine just to be able to install Android Studio on barely-supported hardware, and now I'm cloning the repo and the .gradle directory alone is 1 GB?