Meta: Is the project dead?

[lautriva]

It seems no last commits (other than readme updates) have happened since December 2024 and the issues / pull requests progressively pile up

Is the development stopped? Or is it just a brief pause by the developer?
(understandable but would be good if clarified somewhere in the readme 🙂)

If its dead, is there is an active fork which you recommend?

[rjcndev]

I was questioning this myself, I reported a security concern to their email address last week and didnt receive any answer til now...

So yeah.... I have the same question.

[lastsamurai26]

We work on this project in our spare time and, in addition to this open source project, we also have regular jobs and families.

In the background, we are working on a completely new version, number 5 but we don't have a release date yet.

We are continuing to work actively on this project, even though progress is slow at the moment

We currently need someone to help us with the doc, as unfortunately someone left even though he was active and suddenly disappeared. He had been working on the documentation but did not upload it. .

[JulianPrieber]

Index

• TL;DR
• We need You!

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Still Alive!

Note

Good news, the project is definitely not dead - we still have great plans.

Warning

Bad news, updates are getting a bit slower at the moment.

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Our Time and Commitment

I've mentioned this a few times already, but essentially, I allocate a certain amount of time each week to this project, and this hasn't changed since we started almost 4 years ago. However, I'm now the only maintainer on this project. The way we fund this project does not allow for many luxuries, so we have to make do with what we have and squeeze everything else in alongside our full-time jobs, family, and friends.

Our team consists entirely of volunteers. Due to other responsibilities and life as it happens, we are now down to two team members (@lastsamurai26 and myself). Unfortunately, I faced some health issues recently, which resulted in multiple hospitalizations and took time away from the project.

The past few months, I've been stuck handling customer support and admin work, which left the latest beta stuck in release limbo. Since we currently have no one to fill the role of community manager to properly communicate with our users, this responsibility has fallen to me. Frankly, I have to admit this is not one of my strengths.

Most of our communication now happens on our Discord server, where we are active almost every day and answer as many user questions as we can. We understand that this is not the most accessible method, but we had to discontinue our efforts to maintain other, more open platforms. The best alternative currently is GitHub Discussions.

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One of Our Core Principles: User-Generated Content and Optional Features

One of the principles we want to prioritize more is user-generated content and optional features.

We are currently testing this with the new block system (linkstack-blocks). This system allows adding new link types in the form of blocks. Version 4.9 introduces many new additions to make this feature more fleshed out. The last couple of months I've been working with supporters to build custom-tailored blocks, adding features that cater to specific users needs.

Currently, we have no centralized place to share these blocks, but we openly encourage contributions. Be it financial support or plain time and effort to help us work out new custom features.

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How You Can Contribute

We welcome any code contributions to this project. If you wish to contribute, feel free to open a pull request or contact us through the various means listed on our profile. We're always happy to collaborate.

Important

Become part of the Team!

Our doors are always open, and our team communicates regularly through various channels concerning development, testing, and new features. We invite anyone to be part of that process. Anyone can become an integral part of this project. Personally, I've been impressed by the great things that can result from the collaboration of strangers.

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The Future

We are planning to release the overdue beta as version 4.9 in the coming weeks.

For the past 1.5 years, we've been working on what comes next. While we haven't had the chance to properly announce this, we still intend to release a fully reworked version of the app with release 5.0. This version will address many of the issues that have slowed down updates in the past.

We need You!

We're always grateful to hear that people benefit from the work we put into LinkStack. It means a great deal to us when the community leaves words of appreciation here.

It would greatly help us, especially now, if anyone wants to share why LinkStack is important to you, why this project needs to exist, and what needs improvement.
We're currently being evaluated by several funding partners who are considering collaborating with us to help develop a proper production-ready application. However, this process takes time, and the competition is plentiful.

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TL;DR

• The project is not dead! We still have great plans, but updates are slower due to limited resources and team size.
• Team Status: The project is run entirely by volunteers, and we're now down to two active members. Health issues and other responsibilities have also slowed progress.
• Current Work:
  • The overdue beta will release as version 4.9 in the coming weeks.
  • We've been working on an overhaul for release 5.0, addressing major issues and improving the app for the future.
• Block System: Testing the new block system to allow user-generated content and modular features.
• Contributions Welcome: Code contributions, feedback, and financial support are encouraged. Open a PR or reach out to collaborate!
• Community Engagement: Most communication happens on Discord, but GitHub Discussions is also a way to connect.