> Note: there might be some truly awful OSS maintainers, and some are infamous for it (e.g. Linus); but in my experience it's very very rare to find a negative reaction to a helpful PR.
It's important to understand that this is a misrepresentation of Linus Torvalds' attitude, even "before adjustment". I have seen plenty examples of negative reactions by him, but they were never in reaction to helpful PRs.
They were always in reaction to bad code, unhelpful behavior, etc.
In some cases, they were in reaction to people who were genuinely trying but failing to be helpful. In that case, the kind of blow-up that he became famous for is usually not helpful[0]. That doesn't make him an awful maintainer, though, it just makes him a human being with large but finite amounts of patience.
[0] Though who knows -- perhaps there are cases where the blow-up was what finally got the point across to the person who thought they were being helpful but weren't really. In that case, the blow-up was perhaps a crude tool, but got the job done. Difficulties arise largely due to cultural differences, keeping in mind that "old-school kernel development" is a culture in itself that deserves to be treated with some respect.
The thing about Torvalds for me is how long and explanatory his negative reactions were. He wouldn't just blow-up, he would explain in an abrasive manner exactly why he thought discussing this thing was a waste of his time. It was obviously a tactic (if subconscious) to get people to hesitate before proposing something he would think was obviously silly. I think it probably worked; the criticism of his responses were that they were unnecessarily personal and hurtful, not that they were wrong.
I can also see why he backed away from it. If you're going to hurt people's feelings, best to do it through intermediaries so you don't get stained.
It's important to understand that this is a misrepresentation of Linus Torvalds' attitude, even "before adjustment". I have seen plenty examples of negative reactions by him, but they were never in reaction to helpful PRs.
They were always in reaction to bad code, unhelpful behavior, etc.
In some cases, they were in reaction to people who were genuinely trying but failing to be helpful. In that case, the kind of blow-up that he became famous for is usually not helpful[0]. That doesn't make him an awful maintainer, though, it just makes him a human being with large but finite amounts of patience.
[0] Though who knows -- perhaps there are cases where the blow-up was what finally got the point across to the person who thought they were being helpful but weren't really. In that case, the blow-up was perhaps a crude tool, but got the job done. Difficulties arise largely due to cultural differences, keeping in mind that "old-school kernel development" is a culture in itself that deserves to be treated with some respect.