I will never understand how entitled or mean people can be towards OSS devs. I sympathize with this post a great deal and wish the author all the best in whatever he does next.
My experience of people like this uncle is also that they have generally never done something like running kids sporting events, and in some cases outwardly signal that such work would be beneath them. (Not saying this is true for your uncle, but it is in some of my experiences.)
I think calling that naïvety brings inaccurately benign connotations. It is possible to be naïve while thinking the best of people, and understanding in good faith that everybody is probably trying. Naivety alone doesn't make somebody's default cynical and bitter.
> This uncle was just a very naive person, it's like he thought these people's entire existence was to run kids sporting events.
If you literally cannot even conceive of other people existing in any way that doesn't directly serve your own desires, I think that's less naivety, and more arrogance and entitlement.
If you interact with a thousand people, you are going to interact with multiple genuine criminals.
Probably not a majority, though. And not that it detracts from your actual point; just a s(n?)ide observation.
Do you think Windows 11 devs don't get cursed at? Sure they do but because Microsoft shields them from the users they don't know about it. I can't log an angry issue against the windows repo because they've added yet another stupid ad somewhere. And the same goes with most commercial software.
Most commercial outfits have support and development split out into different functions. It's pretty unique to FOSS that end users can log issues directly with the devs.
And for a support person it's easier to deal with this because it's not their own work that's being criticised so they don't take it personally. I was in support myself and I was pretty emphatic with customers, because in many cases they were right, our software really did suck because there was way too much attention spent on marketing and not enough on UX.
For those who dare to create and release things to the wild as an individual - hope you have thick skin! People are mean, lazy, heartless, cruel, brainless, but also occasionally helpful, thoughtful, and sometimes even smart - and can correct and improve you.
So it's overall worth it!
A lot of people have mastered this better than me, but you can see yourself in a sort of 3rd person sense instead of a 1st person sense (I think it's called "being objective") and when you do it fully and purely, you can't be offended, it's impossible, because if done correctly you no longer identify with yourself but as the bird's eye point-of-view - but because you are still in control of yourself, from this vantage point you can direct your intentionality from a much wiser position. And if somebody unjustly judges you out of spite, jealousy, resentment, etc. you can see it as clearly as if you viewed someone doing that to someone else. A powerful mindset to hold for public-facing creators. You get the benefits of being shielded, and "it's not my ego" and also ego when you want it - at night, under the stars, having a beer, when it's safe to feel proud.
I thought this dev's attitude was fairly healthy. Try something, see it didn't work, start charging.
They resent you when you succeed - "They got lucky - I could have done that!"
You just need to do your own thing. You must find validation within yourself.
I don't think people should get any more cynical. That's why we have this problem. The solution isn't to become more like them.
But it is absolutely vital to understand that there are those types of cynical individuals out there. That's fine. Block them out as appropriate; You don't owe them anything, and they wouldn't reciprocate anyway. Keep an eye on them and take steps to protect yourself when they start to get too opportunistic/actively sabotaging/slanderous etc.
Imagine if OSS went away tomorrow, not even all OSS, just the supplemental developer code specific tools. Suddenly 90+% of JavaScript developers would no longer be able to do their jobs. They wouldn’t even be able to pretend to write deliverable code. Careers instantly killed.
Nobody thinks about that. These free helpers are just assumed to be required and always available, completely taken for granted. These things are just presumed to be absolute necessary and unavoidable. God forbid those OSS devs don’t do your jobs for you too, or at least just provide a bit more custom help.
Xkcd, Nebraska, 2003...?