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The Art of Detecting Defunctitude

The IT world is really fucking stupid sometimes. People obfuscate the truth all the time. One of the worst ways this happens is when a core piece of technology that everyone has been hyping for years becomes a steaming pile of shit that no one wants to touch. It lingers, stinking up everything around it, while people post “needs maintainer” issues to GitHub, all the while people write ill-informed articles about its use and future. Improving your olfactory skills to detect this stuff before it gets on you is absolutely critical in IT. You have to smell it before you decide to discard it, or just to walk away from it and let someone else step in it, and believe me, they will.

Does it have a maintainer?

When was the last commit?

What is the date of the search results pointing to it?

Are there any politically correct but confusing Tweets/blogs about it?

Is it suddenly announcing affiliation with other products, or “including” other things that it once competed with?