I'm giving up on open source

Abuse, Entitlement, and “Thick Skin”

• Many sympathize with maintainers facing harassment, entitlement, and rude issue reports, especially when work is unpaid.
• One camp argues maintainers must develop thick skin, ignore/delete abuse, and not expect the world to change.
• Another insists open source should not require emotional armor; communities should take a hard line on abusive behavior and ban more aggressively.
• Some see much of the hostility as naivety or misplaced consumer habits (“treating GitHub issues like corporate support”), others as deeper arrogance and entitlement.

Expectations vs. Reality of OSS Sustainability

• Multiple comments say expecting companies to voluntarily pay for a small OSS library is unrealistic; “if I build it, they’ll pay me” is seen as a misunderstanding of how procurement works.
• Corporate users are widely portrayed as happy to take value and rarely donate or sponsor, even when projects are critical.
• Several argue: “open source is not a business model”; you need a separate, explicit business strategy (support, hosting, consulting, enterprise features).
• Others counter that large projects (Linux, Postgres, etc.) show OSS can be sustainable when backed by companies or foundations.

Motivations for Open Source

• Some participants view OSS as fundamentally altruistic or a “gift economy” where the reward is collective benefit and better tools.
• Others stress personal benefit: portfolio building, hiring signal, or hobby satisfaction. For them, any payment is a bonus, not an expectation.
• A critical strand claims modern developers are more money‑focused and that free/libre ideals were romanticized “kool‑aid”; others push back, saying these ideals have clearly improved the world.

Project Governance, Boundaries, and User Management

• Frequent suggestion: strong boundaries and process—issue templates, contribution guides, separate user support forums, limiting maintainers’ exposure.
• Some maintainers remove issue trackers, block users, or clearly state “no free support,” citing burnout.
• There is debate over codes of conduct and whether they meaningfully deter bad actors.

The Specific GitHub Incident

• The cited rude issue comment is broadly condemned as entitled and factually wrong.
• Some criticize the blog author for linking directly to it, arguing this triggered a dogpile and serious mental‑health consequences for that commenter.
• Others respond that public rudeness invites public pushback; responsibility for consequences is disputed.