I've decided to open source Sneffel and other projects.
I started web development in 2001 with an open source browser based strategy game called Solar Empire. The player community was generally excited by my work, as I brought some energy into a long-stalled development process. Except I didn't. I kept all my contributions to myself on my own server. I was 11 years old and was too embarrassed to have these "real" software developers look at and criticize my code.
What a shame. I missed a great opportunity to learn from others. Since then I've worked within various teams, but still largely stick to the habit of programming alone in a box. (This isn't 100% bad. Even at Universal, I spend time doing "exploratory" programming in Scheme.) So in an attempt to rectify years' worth of bad habits, I've decided to start open-sourcing my projects. All of them.
I create a github account (github rocks! I can't believe its taken me this long to sign up!) and am open sourcing my major personal projects. I expect to open source any future personal projects.
I know for the most part no one will care and no one will look at my code anyway. But there's always the chance someone will take a peek and want to contribute. And I'm sure I could learn a lot from said person. At the very least, the thought that someone else may be combing through my code will force me to write better.
You can follow my work at https://github.com/mebassett/
