alt Hacker NewsThis is not merely open-source, but taking part in a huge package ecosystem in a foundational role in an XKCD 2347 type of way for HTTP requests.
Put your side project on your personal homepage and walk away - fine.
Make it central infrastructure - respond to participants or extend or cede maintainership.
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No. Even if it’s a central piece of infrastructure, any and all maintainership effort is still a token of good will of the maintainer – and needs to be appreciated, rather than expected.
If you need stronger guarantees, pay someone to deliver them.
I guess frustration speaks here?
There is simply no responsibility an OSS maintainer has. They can choose to be responsible, but no one can force them. Eventually OSS licensing is THE solution at heart to solve this problem. Maintainers go rogue? Fork and move on. But surprise, who is going to fork AND maintain? Filling in all the demands from the community, for potentially no benefit?
No one can force him to take the responsibility, just like no one can force anyone else to.
A foundational role in a huge open-source package ecosystem? I wonder what such an esteemed position pays.
If "taking part in a huge ecosystem in a foundational role" means 'other people choosing to use your FOSS software', and I can't think of what else it would mean, then no, you have no obligation to do any of that.
FOSS means the right to use and fork. That's all it means. That's all it ever meant. Any social expectations beyond that live entirely in your imagination.