I'm going to rant about open source a little, I am so sorry.
So much of open source favors people that ~ have time ~ That usually means:
- They aren't caretakers (i.e. they don't have children or elder family that have care needs) or can rely on a partner to do all of that in their stead.
- They can work long hours outside of their 9-5 jobs which excludes many Disabled people or those that have chronic pain.
- They already have a high paying job, they have health insurance.
@hbuchel nope. Your thread is predicated on the idea that an open source project maintainer owes anyone else anything.
They don't. https://www.softwaremaxims.com/blog/not-a-supplier covers this in some detail in a supply chain context, but it applies equally to e.g. PRs received.
Every time you have a PR accepted, or an issue you reported is fixed, the maintainer is going above and beyond their responsibilities to you. Too few people recognise and appreciate that.
For the past few years, we have seen a lot of discussions around the concept of the Software Supply Chain. These discussions started around the time of LeftPad and escalated with multiple incidents in the past few years. The problem of all the work in this domain is that it forgets a fundamental point.
@hbuchel UBI? Great idea, I'm a big fan.
But even if the maintainer of your favourite open source project receives UBI and never needs paid work again, they *still* don't owe you feedback on your PR or issue.
If they do provide that feedback they have chosen to do so, and they are free to make a different choice at any time.
Anything else and you're demanding unpaid labour from volunteers.
@hbuchel A glance through, e.g., my GH issue history will show that I generally make the choice to help and resolve issues wherever I can.
But the thing that makes that possible - and has prevented burnout for more than 30 years of open source contributions - is the sure knowledge that I am making an active choice to do this, it is not an obligation imposed by others, and a willingness to push back on entitled behaviour when I see it.
Heather Buchel
Nik