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SleepyHead Project Is Shutting Down

134 pointsby janwijbrandover 6 years ago

16 comments

CrazyCatDogover 6 years ago
Two innovations have revolutionized my life—CPAP and Sleepyhead.<p>I volunteered to do a sleep study at the famous Stanford Sleep Clinic some 15 years ago hoping that they would tell me I’m superhuman and don’t need sleep. They came back and told me that I sleep very poorly.<p>CPAP machines are (finally) wonderful, but the manufacturers don’t share any of the data that their machines collect other than basics like hours slept. For those of us with the intellectual curiosity to actually double click on your sleep numbers, Mark’s work is invaluable. I have over 1,500 nights of sleep logged in Sleepyhead...I learned the perils of drinking wine with dinner, the value in tucking in at the same time every night, and which masks work best for me—just to name a few benefits.<p>I use sleep medicine to improve my life, the same way that I use a screwdriver to tighten screws—which is to say, I pay no attention to the sleep-apnea forums and I suspect most users are the same. I’m sharing all of this here in case Mark by chance frequents this forum—and hopefully if enough others like me discuss the value that this free product creates every night for so many millions of users, he may reconsider. I for one, would gladly pay for a Sleepyhead subscription if that meant continued support.<p>Thanks Mark, your work is invaluable.<p>Link to vice motherboard article about why Sleepyhead matters: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;motherboard.vice.com&#x2F;en_us&#x2F;article&#x2F;xwjd4w&#x2F;im-possibly-alive-because-it-exists-why-sleep-apnea-patients-rely-on-a-cpap-machine-hacker" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;motherboard.vice.com&#x2F;en_us&#x2F;article&#x2F;xwjd4w&#x2F;im-possibl...</a>
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tendencydrivenover 6 years ago
Read into this more, here <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cpaptalk.com&#x2F;viewtopic&#x2F;t174687&#x2F;SleepyHead-Project-Takeover-Attempt-by-AB.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cpaptalk.com&#x2F;viewtopic&#x2F;t174687&#x2F;SleepyHead-Project...</a> and here <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.apneaboard.com&#x2F;forums&#x2F;Thread-SleepyHead-version-1-1-Release-plus-odd-posts-by-JediMark?pid=284578#pid284578" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.apneaboard.com&#x2F;forums&#x2F;Thread-SleepyHead-version-1...</a><p>Its not as black and white as it seems
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pramover 6 years ago
No idea what &#x27;SleepyHead&#x27; is but I understand the sentiment. I&#x27;ve felt the pain from the perception of not getting anything back after you&#x27;ve poured so much of yourself into a thing. Especially when it&#x27;s for free, the lack of support starts to feel like ingratitude.<p>It might or might not be true. People might actually appreciate what you&#x27;re doing, but never explicitly say it. However, after a certain point, your mind becomes so toxic and awful that nothing will convince you otherwise. It&#x27;s really better to walk away than become a shitty, bitter husk IMO. Good luck, guy!
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jonawesomegreenover 6 years ago
Open source is hard. Being a maintainer is hard. I&#x27;ve seen a lot of good people burn themselves out trying to maintain &#x2F; contribute to open source software.<p>I think this is a great blog post &#x2F; talk (not mine) about the topic: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;snarky.ca&#x2F;setting-expectations-for-open-source-participation&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;snarky.ca&#x2F;setting-expectations-for-open-source-parti...</a><p>&quot;Here&#x27;s a bit of real talk for people: I think working in OSS has made me more bitter and short-temperated&quot;.<p>Best wishes to the maintainer, hopefully time gives some perspective on the problems in the community and perhaps some ways forward.
jonathankorenover 6 years ago
From the linked blog post:<p>&gt; Let it be known that the hosts of the ApneaBoard forum have finally succeeded in their efforts to hijack the SleepyHead project.<p>Sounds like it&#x27;s not &quot;shutting down&quot; as much as forked, and he&#x27;s upset. Also it looks like the reason why it&#x27;s getting forked is because critical bugs went out. People are relying on this to live, and he&#x27;s treating it like a hobby -- because it is to him.<p>His post is full of recriminations and cries about being betrayed. Even the forum post someone found[0] in these comments supports this idea of a fork.<p>&gt; ApneaBoard&#x27;s recent &quot;release committee&quot; initiative is illegitimate and is seeking to undermine my years of work on SleepyHead and undermine my role in my own software project.&quot;<p>&gt; If it&#x27;s NOT SleepyHead, don&#x27;t call it SleepyHead, and don&#x27;t make it look like SleepyHead... it&#x27;s that simple!<p>The code is GPLed[1]. It sounds like there were other people willing to contribute. The code goes on, without him.<p>[0] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cpaptalk.com&#x2F;viewtopic&#x2F;t174687&#x2F;SleepyHead-Project-Takeover-Attempt-by-AB.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cpaptalk.com&#x2F;viewtopic&#x2F;t174687&#x2F;SleepyHead-Project...</a><p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gitlab.com&#x2F;sleepyhead&#x2F;sleepyhead-code" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gitlab.com&#x2F;sleepyhead&#x2F;sleepyhead-code</a>
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nikkwongover 6 years ago
Sleepyhead probably saved my life (literally) when I couldn&#x27;t get any sleep doctors to take my condition seriously. I can&#x27;t thank him enough for his contributions.<p>The software is quite good, too, with a better UX than a lot of enterprise apps that I use on a daily basis. Might go to show how one person&#x27;s ownership can lead to the creation of great experiences in ways that the lack of ownership often found in large software projects does not.
beck5over 6 years ago
Motherboard did a nice writeup of what Sleepyhead is and an overview of the Sleep Apnea echo system<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;motherboard.vice.com&#x2F;en_us&#x2F;article&#x2F;xwjd4w&#x2F;im-possibly-alive-because-it-exists-why-sleep-apnea-patients-rely-on-a-cpap-machine-hacker?fbclid=IwAR3zfnoX_waylvse7Pdc8_ZDuZVx3dkdUqoHj7Luqs0W8T2hqaQaOaEFDno" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;motherboard.vice.com&#x2F;en_us&#x2F;article&#x2F;xwjd4w&#x2F;im-possibl...</a>
dmuthover 6 years ago
I have no knowledge of this issue, but there seems to be more background here: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cpaptalk.com&#x2F;viewtopic&#x2F;t174687&#x2F;SleepyHead-Project-Takeover-Attempt-by-AB.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cpaptalk.com&#x2F;viewtopic&#x2F;t174687&#x2F;SleepyHead-Project...</a><p>First post is by Jedimark, which goes into more detail, and there are some comments with other sides of the story.
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iamwilover 6 years ago
&gt; If there is one tiny bit of hard learned advice I can leave behind from all this, it would be: Friends don’t let friends release full blown complex applications under the GPL – Keep it for hacks or corporate backed stuff.<p>Anyone know what the story is behind this? Is it that GPL is hard to monetize?
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czbondover 6 years ago
Couldn&#x27;t he just get a subscriber list that pay for the software and releases? I get that it&#x27;s free, and great, but ongoing support takes his time. Put up a paypal link, or your preferred method, and get 300-500 people to sign up for $100&#x2F;yr (for example). If there are forums, there are paying customers.
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helen___kellerover 6 years ago
A lot of small open source projects struggle with leadership and organizational issues as they become more popular with a wider userbase (and hence wider demands, such as in the case support for more CPAP machines).<p>It sucks but that&#x27;s just how it works, and seems inevitable with the entire project focused around the primary maintainer.<p>Seems like Jedimark is doing the right thing by removing himself from the situation to focus on his life. It&#x27;s open source so hopefully the community can fork it and maybe find an organizational model that&#x27;s more sustainable for continued support.
ZeroCool2uover 6 years ago
I recently read about this project in the Motherboard article. Seems like it has had a really positive impact on a lot of people&#x27;s lives. Unfortunate that it has come to this.<p>Official Project Page: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;sleepyhead.jedimark.net&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;sleepyhead.jedimark.net&#x2F;</a><p>Source Link: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gitlab.com&#x2F;sleepyhead&#x2F;sleepyhead-code" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gitlab.com&#x2F;sleepyhead&#x2F;sleepyhead-code</a>
DiabloD3over 6 years ago
So, he says his software is GPL. Does this mean he has a Github repo somewhere? Why isn&#x27;t the community pushing important merge requests to him?
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gotocakeover 6 years ago
Mark, your work greatly improved my life. I completely understand you needed to walk away from this though, and I’m sorry the least among us have taken so much from you.
QuantumGoodover 6 years ago
Not so Black and White, e.g. from the apneaboard forum he trashes:<p>&gt;The pattern goes like this:<p>1. JediMark asks for feedback, development help etc. 2. Folks step up to the plate and help him out. 3. The code is improved and released. 4. Time passes, bugs are found, new machines need support, so those that help Mark out try to contact him to inform him of these needful things. 5. Mark goes &quot;dark&quot; and drops out of any online activity for MONTHS at a time. 6. The &quot;helpers&quot; get frustrated and keep trying to contact Mark for direction. 7. Their requests are ignored by Mark, repeatedly. 8. The &quot;helpers&quot; start talking about trying to help fix the code themselves, since users are clamoring for the fixes with JediMark nowhere to be found. 9. The &quot;helpers&quot; actually fix a bit of the code and offer it up to those who would like to use a &quot;fixed&quot; version, or install a patch. 10. Suddenly, JediMark comes out of hiding, and attacks the &quot;helpers&quot; for not allowing him time to fix the problems himself, saying (basically) that &quot;No one understands the code like I do, since I am the creator of SleepyHead, and your efforts to &#x27;fix&#x27; things only messes up my progress!!!&quot; and &quot;You guys are trying to steal SleepyHead away!&quot; 11. The &quot;helpers&quot; are stunned by Mark&#x27;s attacks and slink off away into oblivion, since they&#x27;re offended that Mark thinks they are a bunch of &quot;rebels&quot;. 12. More months pass with nothing being done. 13. GOTO step 4 (1)<p>-------------------<p>&gt;I was your friend, for several years, until you decided that I was your enemy because I suggested you talk to Pugsy about things that confused new users. Things that confused them then, and things that <i>continue</i> to confuse them now.<p>At that point, you decided I was <i>out to get you&quot; and trying to destroy sleepyhead.<p>You&#x27;ve done the same with Arie, who&#x27;s been helping you for far longer than I had, and now you&#x27;ve decided that Apneaboard is against you.<p>The fact that people don&#x27;t </i>agree* with everything you might think DOES NOT MEAN THEY ARE AGAINST YOU!.<p>Your real friends aren&#x27;t the sycophants that do nothing but shower you with praise.<p>Your real friends are the ones that actually give enough of a shit to tell you &quot;hey, dude, you&#x27;ve got a problem.&quot;, or in the case of Sleepyhead &quot;hey, what you&#x27;re doing is hurting the program, and everybody that uses it.<p>Go ahead and let someone else work on 1.1, if you don&#x27;t like it, FINE, just <i>ignore them</i>.<p>There&#x27;s no reason for you to go off the deep end, making posts about how everybody is out to get you.<p>BECAUSE THEY&#x27;RE NOT out to get you[&#x2F;u][&#x2F;i][&#x2F;b], or, destroy sleepyhead.<p>For Gods sake, you and I worked for hundreds of hours, you told me endless stories about your childhood and growing up and sent me pictures of your first Christmas tree, and you wearing the T-shirt I had custom made for you.... but when I suggested you talk to Pugsy about what confuses people... you were in one of your paranoid phases, and suddenly, I was <i>THE ENEMY</i>.<p>The same thing is happening now.<p>If I didn&#x27;t care, about you... I&#x27;d just laugh and say &quot;he&#x27;s off his rocker again...&quot; I&#x27;d really rather you get help though, so you can be a happier person.(2)<p>(1) Apneaboard.com&#x2F;forums&#x2F;Thread-SleepyHead-version-1-1-Release-plus-odd-posts-by-JediMark?pid=284578#pid284578<p>(2) <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cpaptalk.com&#x2F;viewtopic&#x2F;t174687&#x2F;SleepyHead-Project-Takeover-Attempt-by-AB.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cpaptalk.com&#x2F;viewtopic&#x2F;t174687&#x2F;SleepyHead-Project...</a>
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goshxover 6 years ago
His work will be missed.<p>It sucks that it came down to this and it reminds me of how many entitled toxic pricks exist out there just to make the work of those voluntarily trying to make the world a better place harder. It&#x27;s sad that they&#x27;ve won this time, but his wife and daughter won big time.<p>If you are reading this, thank you sincerely and I hope you find joy in your future endeavors.
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