In this episode, Matt and Liam dive into one of the spiciest debates in the software world: What do open source maintainers actually owe their community? From unpaid labour to entitlement, we explore the tension between contributors and consumers in the open source ecosystem.
We discuss:
- The expectations placed on maintainers and why they burn out
- Whether open source projects should come with service-level guarantees
- The blurred line between community contributions and unpaid work
- Real-world examples of OSS drama, gratitude, and frustration
- How to support the projects you rely on, without being “that person”
If you’ve ever used an open source library, contributed to one, or found yourself waiting on an issue fix, this episode is for you.
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Cheers! 🍻
🔗 Tonight’s Links 🔗
🍻 Tonight’s Drinks 🍻 Matt - Soda water Liam - 🥃 Dalwhinnie (one of Matt’s favourites too!)