This whole thread makes me feel so much better about my struggles with github as a non-developer. I thought it was just me being an idiot

If it helps, even devs have problems following the install instructions.

It could be for a lot of reasons. Usually it’s because it’s open source and we can’t test it for every possible configuration.

Me in particular, all my application projects don’t include node versions, and assume Linux. Even I forget that sometimes if I’m loading a old project and suddenly it doesn’t build, and I have to futz around for an hour eupdating packages.

This is why I was told to always write instructions or documentation for dummies, because we never know who is going to use them and it might come back to bite us in the ass. Seems to be a rare thing, since most of the tutorials or instructions I’ve seen during my life (real and Internet) assume people know or omit important details that seem minor or the formatting is terrible (use screencaps if possible, make it easier for everyone).

Seems to be a rare thing,

Didn’t you know? All the cool kids these days skip documentation and just hang out on discord, where you can get a laggy response to your query about build dependencies in 2-3 business days.