I don't think it's the first time, nor the last, we'll see maintainers and otherwise really great people being turned off from FOSS because of the massive weight that entitled outsiders and toxic "collaborators" seem to add.
So on that, is there any guides for FOSS maintainers out there about how to deal with the emotional toll of FOSS, with a focus on self-care, how to say "No", generally just how to deal with the people/human part of FOSS, without focusing on the technical details?
We have a ton of guides from companies and individuals how to make the technical, infrastructure, product, software parts work, but I don't remember ever seeing a guide how to deal with emotions one might feel when doing this sort of work.
I think I'm lucky that it's relatively easy for me to tell people to fuck off when I find them not contributing or being toxic, but judging by the amount of people who feel a real emotional toll, border-lining to the feelings of burnout while working on their dream projects, this doesn't seem to come as easily to everyone, so having a guide/manual about this would be amazing.
I have a few projects that I've abandoned because they only made sense as a FOSS project, and I saw how FOSS maintainers were being treated. I love FOSS, I love the philosophy, and I would love to "give back" one day by making the ecosystem richer, but I've not yet found a project that I love enough to be abused over.
So on that, is there any guides for FOSS maintainers out there about how to deal with the emotional toll of FOSS, with a focus on self-care, how to say "No", generally just how to deal with the people/human part of FOSS, without focusing on the technical details?
We have a ton of guides from companies and individuals how to make the technical, infrastructure, product, software parts work, but I don't remember ever seeing a guide how to deal with emotions one might feel when doing this sort of work.
I think I'm lucky that it's relatively easy for me to tell people to fuck off when I find them not contributing or being toxic, but judging by the amount of people who feel a real emotional toll, border-lining to the feelings of burnout while working on their dream projects, this doesn't seem to come as easily to everyone, so having a guide/manual about this would be amazing.