As an open source software maintainer myself, I don’t quite agree with some of the points.
I also always believed that if you ever started a project that is valuable for companies, they would support you in return
For me, I do ask for donation, of course, because life is hard and who doesn’t want money? Especially when you deserved it. But I never expect anyone to make a donation. It’s only when someone actually did it I feel so much happy.
All I got was complaints.
I see it as feature requests and bug reports, and are another kind of contribution. Note that some of the people may seem rude, it could be because they are simply bad at English (I am too) and try their best to write a short sentence. Some may not familiar to GitHub and talk about their problems in an unrelated issue. In that case I simply try my best to understand and kindly answer them, and guide them to the right direction.
It may seem to you that open source is great because it’s free to use. Truth is, it certainly is not free.
I use open source softwares for free, and I want to pay it back by contributing more to open source. I don’t forget that my own open source projects also have a lot of other open source components on it, all for free. I don’t like to force people to pay for my softwares in order to use it.
Of course, my open source projects will forever be hobby projects, I can never make it into a serious business nor work on it full-time, but I’m fine with that.
Very well said. 100% agree - my projects are hobbies that allow me to contribute back for the many OSS I use, with the added bonus of helping me learn/retain knowledge of languages.
Good thoughts. Did you follow the link to thread that was the tipping point for the blog author? The thread creator was very rude (according to, due to his own mental health situation). We all have different levels of tolerance and patience, but I can totally see why the blog author would be fed up after such a comment, if things were already stressful.
As an open source software maintainer myself, I don’t quite agree with some of the points.
For me, I do ask for donation, of course, because life is hard and who doesn’t want money? Especially when you deserved it. But I never expect anyone to make a donation. It’s only when someone actually did it I feel so much happy.
I see it as feature requests and bug reports, and are another kind of contribution. Note that some of the people may seem rude, it could be because they are simply bad at English (I am too) and try their best to write a short sentence. Some may not familiar to GitHub and talk about their problems in an unrelated issue. In that case I simply try my best to understand and kindly answer them, and guide them to the right direction.
I use open source softwares for free, and I want to pay it back by contributing more to open source. I don’t forget that my own open source projects also have a lot of other open source components on it, all for free. I don’t like to force people to pay for my softwares in order to use it.
Of course, my open source projects will forever be hobby projects, I can never make it into a serious business nor work on it full-time, but I’m fine with that.
Very well said. 100% agree - my projects are hobbies that allow me to contribute back for the many OSS I use, with the added bonus of helping me learn/retain knowledge of languages.
I appreciate your attitude about dealing with people. And the other stuff too.
Good thoughts. Did you follow the link to thread that was the tipping point for the blog author? The thread creator was very rude (according to, due to his own mental health situation). We all have different levels of tolerance and patience, but I can totally see why the blog author would be fed up after such a comment, if things were already stressful.