{
  "video_id": "reddit_1ukim8j",
  "channel_slug": "programming",
  "channel_handle": "r/programming",
  "title": "Open source is a thankless job and I think we've lost the plot on how we treat maintainers",
  "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1ukim8j/open_source_is_a_thankless_job_and_i_think_weve/",
  "external_url": "https://github.com/better-auth/better-auth/issues/10288",
  "upload_date": "20260701",
  "published_at": "2026-07-01T11:09:38+00:00",
  "transcript": "I saw an issue today on a fairly popular project (better-auth, see the link to the issue attached). No repro, no context, just a wall of caps and profanity ending in \"fuck you\". The maintainers ship this for free. People run production businesses on top of it, for free. And the thanks is someone raging into a text box because a minor bump cost them an afternoon.\n\nI maintain and contribute to a few projects myself, so this hits a nerve a bit. Something people don't see from the outside: it's not enough to know how to build the thing. You also have to know how to defuse a thread where someone's insulting you and not fire back, even though most of us aren't paid for any of it, let alone the work of staying civil while being told to get fucked.\n\nI'm not pretending breaking changes don't cause real pain (that's what the issue is about). But I keep coming back to a boundary question: if you're not paying for it, do you actually get to demand anything? (Obviously yes, but we still need some boundaries)\n\n\n\n--- Top Comments ---\n\n\n[114 upvotes] As a user, you get to demand exactly nothing. If you consider the project to not be serious, don't use it instead of melting down in online comms. The maintainer owes you nothing.\n\n\n[99 upvotes] I've had people reach out privately complaining about a missing feature in an open source project of mine, pressing me to implement it because it's \"really important for their company\". They never once answered when I quoted them a price for the feature, they never created a PR. \n\nTo be honest, I totally understand maintainers who take no shit and immediately shut down many users... with words that make sure they stay quiet for a long time. \n\n[39 upvotes] > \nYou also have to know how to defuse a thread where someone's insulting you and not fire back, even though most of us aren't paid for any of it, let alone the work of staying civil while being told to get fucked.\n\nYou don't have to stay civil.  If you aren't paid, then the worse thing that's going to happen is people stop using your project, which means less people bothering you.  You have no obligation to people who aren't paying you.\n\n[32 upvotes] I also think the issue author is in the wrong. Not because expecting semver to be respected is wrong, but because he expected anything more from a project with AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md in the repo.",
  "transcript_chars": 2358,
  "ingested_at": "2026-07-01T13:30:17.174409+00:00",
  "source": "reddit",
  "yt_meta": {
    "score": 208,
    "upvote_ratio": 0.92,
    "num_comments": 52,
    "author": "swithek",
    "is_self": false
  }
}