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I used to be a maintainer of a few semi-popular open source projects, and boy do I feel this. I know this probably sounds like I'm whining, but it can really gr

I used to be a maintainer of a few semi-popular open source projects, and boy do I feel this. I know this probably sounds like I'm whining, but it can really grind on you in a few different ways: 1) The unpleasant interactions, while rare, tend to be VERY unpleasant. 2) Unless you are solely devoted to working on that thing as your only hobby, people start wondering about the delay between code/releases. 3) A certain amount of the work is just keeping the lights on: making sure your dependencies are secure, making sure that new change in Github actions doesn't break your build, etc. If you only have a limited time to work on a project, a lot of it gets spent here sometimes. 4) The more popular something is, the more eyes on it, and the more bugs are found (and the bigger chance your bug fix introduces new bugs, especially if you have limited time to spend fixing it). This then takes up a larger percentage of your time. For a certain level of open source popularity I feel like I only get a few options. I can turn it into my job somehow, I can make it my only hobby, or I can walk away. In a few instances I've chosen to walk away. Sometimes there is someone to take over, sometimes there isn't. No matter what it feels like an impossible choice.

nevon 2y ago
Same here. To me it's not even some egregiously unpleasant interactions (there have been some of those, but they've been exceedingly rare). It's the constant barrage of low-level entitlement of expecting work that individually isn't much but sums up to basically "make this project your main priority in life because my problem should be just as important to you as it is to me". I've started to think that there shouldn't be such a thing as a "main" codebase, but rather a network of clones that each introduce whatever fixes or features are important to them, and if they want changes from others they're free to integrate those themselves. Yes it's convenient for users to have a curated blessed distribution of a project, but at what cost?
- TheCleric 2y ago
  Yeah that's spot on. I can shake off the unpleasant interactions. The death by a thousand low level demands wears on me more.

nevon 2y ago

Same here. To me it's not even some egregiously unpleasant interactions (there have been some of those, but they've been exceedingly rare). It's the constant barrage of low-level entitlement of expecting work that individually isn't much but sums up to basically "make this project your main priority in life because my problem should be just as important to you as it is to me". I've started to think that there shouldn't be such a thing as a "main" codebase, but rather a network of clones that each introduce whatever fixes or features are important to them, and if they want changes from others they're free to integrate those themselves. Yes it's convenient for users to have a curated blessed distribution of a project, but at what cost?

TheCleric 2y ago
Yeah that's spot on. I can shake off the unpleasant interactions. The death by a thousand low level demands wears on me more.