The Unsung Heroes of Open Source: Why Transparency, Gratitude, and Sustainable Support Matter
June 8, 2025Tags: careers, open-source, community
Behind every successful open-source project are dedicated maintainers who pour their time, expertise, and passion into building and sustaining these vital tools. Yet, the realities of open-source maintenance are often misunderstood, leading to friction and unrealistic expectations within the community. It’s time to shine a light on what truly makes open-source thrive: transparency, genuine gratitude, and a sustainable model that recognizes the immense effort involved.
Transparency: The North Star of a Thriving Open Source Project
In the world of open source, clarity and communication are paramount. Leading projects understand that keeping their community informed fosters trust, encourages participation, and sets realistic expectations. We see this exemplified in projects like the Jeremy D. Miller’s Critter Stack, MassTransit, and Jimmy Bogard’s AutoMapper and MediatR packages. These aren’t just great tools; they are models of transparent maintenance.
Their maintainers publish blog posts that detail upcoming roadmaps, significant licensing changes, and even the nuances of their development processes. This level of openness is invaluable. It allows users to plan, contribute more effectively, and understand the direction of the project. When a project’s future and its maintainers’ challenges are openly discussed, it builds a stronger, more resilient community around it.
The Hidden Costs of Keeping Open Source Alive
Maintaining an open-source project is far from a trivial undertaking; it demands a significant and often unseen investment. For maintainers, it’s not just about writing code. It’s about:
- Time: Hours spent reviewing pull requests, answering questions, debugging issues, and planning future enhancements – time that could otherwise be dedicated to personal pursuits or paid work.
- Documentation and Education: Crafting clear, comprehensive documentation, creating examples, and often producing educational content to help users effectively adopt and utilize the software. This is a crucial, yet often overlooked, aspect of a successful project.
- Community Cultivation: Fostering a positive and inclusive environment, resolving conflicts, and encouraging new contributors. A healthy community doesn’t just happen; it’s carefully nurtured.
- Finding and Retaining Co-Maintainers: The burden often falls on a few individuals. Finding reliable co-maintainers and contributors who are committed to the long haul is a constant challenge.
- Navigating the Evolving Ecosystem: Maintainers often face a continuous treadmill of updates driven by upstream dependencies, security vulnerabilities, and platform changes. This isn’t a choice; it’s a necessity to keep the project relevant and secure. So, when someone - especially a maintainer of the framework used by many packages - asks an open source maintainer, “Who forces you to make those changes?”, it reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the inherent, external pressures that drive software evolution. No one is “forcing” them in the traditional sense, but the ecosystem, security landscape, and user expectations demand constant adaptation.
These are not small tasks; they represent a continuous dedication that extends far beyond the initial coding effort.
Gratitude: The Fuel for Community Engagement
A simple “thank you” can go a long way. Maintainers who actively acknowledge and appreciate contributions from their community build stronger, more engaged, and more loyal followings. When a pull request is silently merged, or an issue is closed without a word, it can feel dismissive to the contributor who invested their time and effort.
I’ve been lucky to be working with Ardalis and assisting on some of his OSS projects. The crew he has shows gratitude for their contributors. Working with this team enables me to continue sharing the gratitude, as we did that in our Clean Architecture for .NET 9 video.
Conversely, maintainers who publicly celebrate contributions, engage in meaningful discussions, and express genuine gratitude foster a sense of belonging and value among their community members. This positive reinforcement is a powerful motivator, encouraging continued participation and transforming casual users into dedicated advocates. Building a reciprocal relationship with the community is key to long-term success.
Sustainable Open Source: The Case for Commercial Support
One of the most frequent points of contention arises when companies or individuals charge for commercial support of their open-source packages. It’s time to address this misconception head-on: open-source maintainers need to make a living.
Expecting maintainers to endlessly provide free support, consulting, and advanced features without any financial compensation is unsustainable and unrealistic. While the code itself is open, the expertise, time, and ongoing effort required to support its use, offer enterprise-grade guarantees, and provide tailored solutions are valuable services.
When companies offer commercial support, it’s not a betrayal of the concept of open-source; it’s a legitimate business model that allows maintainers to dedicate more time and resources to their projects. This, in turn, benefits the entire open-source ecosystem by ensuring the longevity, quality, and continued innovation of these essential tools. Complaining about commercial support is akin to demanding that a professional chef provide their culinary masterpieces for free because the ingredients are publicly available.
Moving Forward: A Collaborative Future
The success of open source relies on a collaborative ecosystem built on respect and understanding. As users and beneficiaries of open-source software, we have a responsibility to appreciate the immense effort of maintainers. By advocating for transparency, practicing gratitude, and embracing sustainable models that include commercial support, we can help ensure that the unsung heroes of open source can continue to build the tools that empower us all. Let’s foster a community where maintainers are not just tolerated, but celebrated and supported, allowing open source to truly flourish.