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In a stark announcement that underscores the fragility of open-source maintenance, Tiny Tiny RSS (tt-rss) founder declared the impending shutdown of all public project infrastructure. On November 1, 2025, tt-rss.org, its community forum, code repositories (gitlab.tt-rss.org and git.tt-rss.org), and related services will vanish permanently. Users have just one month to mirror repositories before they disappear.

"I no longer find it fun to maintain public-facing anything, be it open source projects or websites," the maintainer stated bluntly in the forum post. "tt-rss has been ‘done’ for years, and the ‘let’s bump base PHP version and fix breakages’ routine is not engaging."

The End of an Era for Self-Hosted RSS

Tiny Tiny RSS, a PHP-based self-hosted RSS/Atom aggregator, has been a critical tool for privacy-focused users since 2005. Unlike cloud-based alternatives, tt-rss empowered developers to control their news feeds entirely—a philosophy resonating with decentralization advocates. The shutdown dismantles not just software, but a community hub where contributors collaborated on issues ranging from API extensions to security patches.

Why This Matters Beyond RSS

  1. Maintainer Burnout Crisis: The decision highlights unsustainable reliance on individual passion in open-source. With no financial incentives or接班 (succession plan), even "finished" projects risk abrupt abandonment.
  2. Infrastructure Fragility: The takedown includes cgit repositories—critical to project continuity. Developers must now scramble to fork/mirror code before archival links die.
  3. User Exodus: Those using the official tt-rss.org instance (like user @dariottolo mentioned in the post) must migrate to alternatives like FreshRSS or self-hosted setups.

The Silent Toll of "Done" Software

The maintainer’s lament—"bumping PHP versions isn't engaging"—reveals a hidden tax on OSS: perpetual maintenance of "stable" projects. Security updates, dependency shifts, and compatibility fixes demand grind-like labor, often without recognition. tt-rss joins projects like OpenSSL (pre-Heartbleed) in facing the paradox: the more reliable software becomes, the less visible—and less funded—its upkeep turns.

What’s Next for the Community?

  • Code Preservation: Developers should immediately mirror tt-rss Git repositories to platforms like GitHub or GitLab.
  • Forum Archive: Historical discussions will enter read-only mode until shutdown—archive crucial threads now.
  • Fork Vigilance: Active forks may emerge, but without central governance, fragmentation risks dilute development momentum.

As RSS enthusiasts brace for November, tt-rss’s sunset forces a reckoning: How can the tech ecosystem better support maintainers of "unsexy" but vital infrastructure? The answer will define whether other cornerstone projects share tt-rss’s fate.