It does suck. Because it’s a reminder that they’re are jerks out there and hard to avoid. Especially on the web. It also must sting because he’s trying to be a good citizen.
We see this in abusive behavior towards open source maintainers. It saps their will. And 100 thanks < 1 savage attack.
About a year ago the site I worked on had a hacking attempt. I’m not sure why, it was a site that provided online genetic tools for researchers. We had no financials, or even logins. I felt bad in a similar way as when someone broke into my car years ago, or when I had a package go missing.
Move forward/ move on is how I handled it.
Just as a note to 100 thanks < 1 savage attack. I run several open source sites that collectively get 240k unique vistors per day. They've been running for > 10 years. I get less than 2 thanks a year. I'm not saying I deserve any or that I want them. Only providing data.
I also have 100+ open source projects on github. A few with ~1000 stars. Same thing, few if any thanks.
I wish there was some way to make it easier to thank. I'm just as guilty of not thanking all the open source projects I use except for the few I donate to.
It would still suck to get attacked but it would be motivating to get thanked as well.