this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2026
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Have you ever found a GitHub project or anything that seemed nice and tempting to install until you dug a bit deeper?

What are some red flags that should detur anyone from installing and running something?

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[โ€“] chunes@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

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.

[โ€“] MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 8 points 2 days ago

User manuals, I remember those, fondly. Unfortunately a pretty dead concept these days, but certainly a green flag if there is one, but absence is not a red flag.

A readthedocs.io entry is also a green flag (you can always download it for later offline...).