Even though bad faith criticism and complaints can be useful, I find there is a still an insurmountable problem sometimes: it can be too time- and energy-consum

Even though bad faith criticism and complaints can be useful, I find there is a still an insurmountable problem sometimes: it can be too time- and energy-consuming to handle the sheer quantity and/or intensity. Sometimes, especially at "political moments" (like elections in a project I was involved in recently - and I wasn't even a candidate), it can feel like being overwhelmed by a tidal wave. If I only have 1 spare hour per day for a project, there is neither time nor emotional energy to handle emails that are so full of demanding questions that it would take 3 hours to process carefully and reply carefully. And if you don't reply carefully, they send you more, writing longer and getting more obsessive (and sometimes personal) as if they sense you'll engage them in a long conversation, so being careful in the first place is a net win. Even if it only took 1 hour, that's still used up all the time I was going to use on other productive things, the "real work". I am in awe of maintainers who seem to reply to an onslaught of demanding questioners, and somehow satisfy them. For me, these are relevant: "Assholes are Killing Your Project" (Donnie Berkholz) https://www.slideshare.net/dberkholz/assholes-are-killing-your-project-mdc-2017 https://www.slideshare.net/dberkholz/assholes-are-killing-yo... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZSli7QW4rg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZSli7QW4rg