There is no such thing as the open source community. There are many overlapping communities, with a great deal of variation in culture and norms. Research code

There is no such thing as the open source community. There are many overlapping communities, with a great deal of variation in culture and norms. Research code is a good example of this, because the academia is full of niche groups with varying aims. In computer science, a lot of open source code is written for other researchers in the same subfield. Some degree of support is expected, as long as the request is related to research (and the original developer has not left the academia). Requests from people who just want to use the code feel awkward and out of scope. Many bioinformaticians write software for actual users. Inexperienced ones may read about a fancy new algorithm, find the implementation, and try to use it in their project. Confusion (and sometimes even conflict) ensues when they find that the proof-of-concept implementation from a CS researcher is not appropriate for real use. On the other hand, there are many unwritten rules about modifying and redistributing somebody else's code. Research is all about ideas, and building upon them without crediting the original authors clearly and visibly violates academic integrity.