Rich Hickey, creator of Clojure, posted a blunt message about open source expectations that resonated with developers. In a 2018 gist titled 'Open Source is Not About You,' Hickey argued that open source maintainers owe nothing to users beyond the license itself. He pushed back against the notion that releasing code creates obligations for ongoing support, feature development, or community management.

Hickey emphasized that open source is fundamentally a licensing mechanism, not a social contract. He noted that Cognitect, the company behind Clojure, receives no royalties from the language and that fewer than 1% of users are their customers. The team invests their own money into Clojure development and community outreach, with Alex Miller spending most of his time on community features and patch assessment.

Hickey defended Clojure's conservative development approach, contrasting it with projects that suffer from 'high churn rates and feature bloat.' He acknowledged the value of community contributions while noting that most patches arrive with poor problem statements and no tests. The message struck a chord with developers who appreciated his candor about the realities of maintaining popular open source projects.