On Respect and Gratitude in Open Source
Published on Sep 17, 2026, filed under development, society. (Share this post, e.g., on Mastodon.)
There’s less and less respect and gratitude in open-source projects.
I barely see it anymore: Responding promptly to contributors, respecting their time, thanking them.
In most projects, I observe the following:
- Usually no acknowledgement of issues and PRs
- Consistent delays to get a response
- No thanks for reports and PRs
This is the same for first-time and long-term experiences—newcomer requests aren’t treated well just as there are projects with regular contributors who never get a word of appreciation.
Beyond that, there are outright negative outliers. Astro is my recent favorite as their team doesn’t seem to look at issue reports on their merit—they simply close them, on grounds of form. As I said in On the Two Sides and the Spectrum That Is Open Source Maintenance, projects can do that, but bureaucracy-driven engineering 1) is poor engineering that 2) drives people away.
I could add to this, and the cases are bizarre—in 2026, you might contact open-source projects about security issues, even hand them fixes on a silver platter, and they would not respond, handle the issue, let alone thank anyone for it.
The problem predates them, so I don’t accept AI contributions—which have become an issue—as an excuse. If these projects can’t tell a human from an LLM, they can’t tell an LLM from a human, either. They might as well try to avoid admitting not to have a grip on their issue tracker, their codebase, or both (which is fine—just say so).
I’m harsh here because the issue is severe: Both not accepting feedback and contributions and not showing reasonable manners go against the spirit of open source.
The inherent disrespect is extremely corrosive—there seems to be no sense of the time that goes into providing issue reports and PRs. That includes the bad ones—and the AI ones.
Not acknowledging contributions and the work that goes into them, whether through a quick response or a kind word, undermines our entire community. Every time that happens, it’s a “fuck you” towards a contributor. That seems fashionable if we look at the wider society—things are falling apart around us as we burn the planet and let nations get away with exploitation and murder—, but that doesn’t make it acceptable.
Here’s the point: If you can’t handle contributions to your open-source project, then maybe just make it closed source. Leave the developer community alone rather than poison it.
Yet if you want to be part of the open-source community, then start with manners. Treat your contributors with respect and gratitude. Go out of your way to handle issues. Don’t forget to say “thank you.” Be a steward for our community and our profession.
Finally, all of this still requires nuance. Maintainers are people who may be overloaded, stressed, having a bad day. Sure. Let’s grant some slack without allowing it to distract us: There are some very basic things that we as human beings have long found to grease our living together—and that is, again: respect and gratitude.
About Me
I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m an engineering lead, guerrilla philosopher, and indie publisher. I’ve worked as a technical lead and engineering manager at various companies (e.g., Google); I’m an active web and tool developer (code optimization, digital defense), a contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and a book author (O’Reilly, Frontend Dogma).
I love trying things—in web development and engineering management, but also in politics and philosophy, where I hold to one idea in particular: that we can only be well if we take good care of everyone. Here on meiert.com I talk about some of my perspectives and experiences. (Interpret charitably but be critical—and share feedback and advice that makes my work better.)