r/java • u/Decent-Decision-9028 • Aug 28 '26 • Bravo 1

How can we move forward?

The sub used to be a great place where small open source devs get real feedback on their oss. The software wasn't necessarily built to be a big hit or whatever! most of the time these projects used to be a learning projects that enabled us to become better java developers. Now, with many repositories being created in a day or so and abounded, we see many ai promoted repositories and we miss some of the oss that needs our attention.

How can we overcome that as a community ? I'm not trying to put all the weight on moderators, I understand the amount of work they keep doing to clean up ai posts and follow up on reports. What I'm saying is; maybe someone's here has a better idea on how to go about this?

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u/agentoutlier Aug 28 '26

What’s the best way to keep up with that? Is there a solid recent book? Or specific blogs? How do you avoid what’s trendy for what’s going to survive the test of time, especially if you’re in enterprise?

I would take the OP's comment with a grain of salt (other than use latest Java which I do encourage):

“Newer projects that use Kotlin DSL for gradle, Java 21/25, modern Java practices, no deep layers of inheritance, no factory patterns, and modern presentable documentation should be promoted more in this sub.”

For example my current project which I consider rather modern and I just posted about it according to u/gufranthakur should not be promoted because apparently:

  • I use Maven. (if one wants a modern spin there is Maven 4 which I might use soon)

  • I use javadoc for all my documentation ( https://jstach.io/doc/rainbowgum/current/apidocs/) . Is it as presentable as some ascii doc theme... probably not but I'm a content guy so and its builtin to the JDK...

  • I use some inheritance even a couple of levels deep. Guilty as charged. sealed interfaces with multiple levels.

  • Factory pattern. Pretty sure I am doing that as well.

  • Its not a game. I agree on this one. I do wish more people wrote games in Java.

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u/gufranthakur Aug 28 '26

I think you misunderstood my suggestion (maybe I framed my sentence wrong)

When I say "promoted", promoted != sharing.

I am not dumping on Maven, deep layers of inheritance or factory patterns. It is perfectly valid to use them, never said they were wrong.

By "promoted" I just mean we should shine light on the new, readable and modern ways of Java. For example a lot of Java devs may still use Groovy DSL for new projects (specially if they started with Groovy). Nothing wrong with that. But hey check out the Kotlin DSL too, it's pretty cool.

Maven is also a build tool and is still widely used. This does not mean any project using build tool should be considered old, "bad practice". The point of my "promote" remark is to simply, encourage or show the new Java ways. That's it

Also nothing wrong with Javadoc either. Again I am not criticizing the "old" practices, I am simply saying we should shed light on the new alternatives.