I thought most software authors have this particular stance, which of course they are in their right to have, that they are offering free software and thus have

I thought most software authors have this particular stance, which of course they are in their right to have, that they are offering free software and thus have no obligation to help anyone with anything, and they can always do it by themselves. In the past I've seen links here on HN where certain OSS authors were pressured into helping, fixing, adding features by users who 'demanded' it and the authors were feeling very bad about all this. It wasn't just one post.