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Man. I can't help but feel like some stories like this are caused entirely by pressure that the project maintainer is putting on themselves. Like the solution i

Man. I can't help but feel like some stories like this are caused entirely by pressure that the project maintainer is putting on themselves. Like the solution in this article was, "Finally, I learned to say no..." But maybe I would be the same way, diving deep into some obscure issue out of a sense of obligation to fix the thing I built and made available for others to use, and not realizing how much it was affecting me until reaching a breaking point. I'm glad articles like this exist and are getting shared around. Maybe more maintainers will start with a healthy attitude of "I'm not going to address every issue." Maybe we'll get a technical solution... Make it possible to close all channels? Find ways to encourage satisfied users to leave positive feedback? Buttons to close an issue with "Sorry, but I don't have time to provide support for free, but feel free to contribute your own solution to the project!" or "This might not be related to the software and I don't have time to address it, advise doing more research on your own."?

marcinzm 6y ago
>I can't help but feel like some stories like this are caused entirely by pressure that the project maintainer is putting on themselves. Most people dislike getting tons of negative unconstructive feedback on something they put effort and love into. Detachment can easily turn into indifference about the project itself. That's not even getting into the more aggressive feedback that some people will casually throw at you if you tell them no.
- HomeDeLaPot 6y ago
  Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I can understand that. Something is needed to prioritize and filter the queue of issues without causing too much detachment on the maintainer's part.
  - marcinzm 6y ago
    I feel the generally remote or solo work of open source developers makes it even harder. I talked to the customer support people at work and it's the shared team bonds that keep them from burning out. They can commiserate and provide mutual emotional support if a bad customer berates one of them. They can share and reinforce positive comments amongst each other to lift morale. That is all much harder for most open source projects.

marcinzm 6y ago

>I can't help but feel like some stories like this are caused entirely by pressure that the project maintainer is putting on themselves. Most people dislike getting tons of negative unconstructive feedback on something they put effort and love into. Detachment can easily turn into indifference about the project itself. That's not even getting into the more aggressive feedback that some people will casually throw at you if you tell them no.

HomeDeLaPot 6y ago
Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I can understand that. Something is needed to prioritize and filter the queue of issues without causing too much detachment on the maintainer's part.
- marcinzm 6y ago
  I feel the generally remote or solo work of open source developers makes it even harder. I talked to the customer support people at work and it's the shared team bonds that keep them from burning out. They can commiserate and provide mutual emotional support if a bad customer berates one of them. They can share and reinforce positive comments amongst each other to lift morale. That is all much harder for most open source projects.