My Repo, My House, My Rules

> I’ve recently realized people misguidedly think GitHub repositories are public space.

I feel it is quite similar to public space. It is open and accessible to everybody. There is a certain etiquette in public space that you should adhere to though. I think that is where the real issue lies. A few people have unrealistic expectations of open source maintainers. I have seen very rude behavior towards maintainers, people get this weird sense of entitlement sometimes.

Someone posted something in public space, and wonder how come people interact with it. :D

If you have a PR tab open for people, or issues then why are you complaining that they are using it? Make your repos private and stop complaining.

1. Github encourages us to specify a license on our repositories. This specifies the expectations a user can have.

2. There is a mechanism for people to participate - a pull request. The owner has the right to decide if this is consistent with the project goals and respond accordingly.

3. Charitable interactions are productive. It encourages collaboration and the result is the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. That is fun. Too much drama causes developers to find other uses for their time and talent.