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Actionbase

Good Code Doesn't Speak for Itself

- 2 min read - 334 words
Dokyung Lee
Dokyung Lee
Maintainer

The Beginning

Section titled “The Beginning”

“I’ll give the hands-on guide a try.”

I said this casually while we were working on making Actionbase open source.

I experienced Actionbase first as a user. I watched people around me struggle to understand it when they first encountered it. That’s when I first thought—this good technology might get buried. So I decided to create a guide that would help anyone understand the value of Actionbase.

It Started as a Small Task

Section titled “It Started as a Small Task”

Actionbase was already battle-tested in production. What we needed was a way to bring it to the world.

I thought a simple Instagram-like app example would be enough—follows, likes, and feeds. But reality was different. Making code open source and making it easy to try firsthand are entirely different things.

So I built a guide you can run immediately. No environment setup, no copy-pasting—just click and see the results. Commits piled up. And at the end of it all, I opened my first PR.

Instead of the Visible Work

Section titled “Instead of the Visible Work”

Some might ask—isn’t working on the core the more visible work? But I chose the guide.

I think of this project as my own. I’ve felt that way ever since I first experienced it as a user. So whether it’s core development or not stopped mattering. If it’s work that can share the value of Actionbase, it’s valuable work in itself.

Closing

Section titled “Closing”

When I opened the first guide PR, em3s said:

“The hands-on guide makes things look better than they are.”

I believe Actionbase is good technology in its own right. But communicating that value requires a different kind of effort than writing good code. It’s not something you can solve by just being good at your job—it’s about helping others understand. Good technology needs good communication to shine. I hope this guide is the start of that.

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