I think that's the point. Maintainers have no obligation to do anything for anyone
If someone spams me, I will ignore or retaliate by reporting as spam. If someone sends a low effort question, I might politely tell them to rtfm. If someone makes an effort to articulate a problem, even if I disagree, I’ll try to give them a reasoned response.
And if I genuinely have no interest in any interaction I’ll make sure to disable issues/comments or otherwise communicate this intent.
Do you see the contradiction here?
He said there's no "absolute" obligation, but there are some by virtue of us living in a society.
If you say that there is no obligations, but also that you should follow some social expectations, then you’re contradicting yourself. It’s just a nicer way to say that people should behave according to what you consider to be acceptable.
Btw, which society rules do you mean? Because you have a lot of differences in different places regarding politeness and other social obligations.
The entire discussion is at the level of social expectations.
Correct, I think we agree on that.
> The entire discussion is at the level of social expectations.
No, this statement:
> No, there is no obligation. But there’s a thing called courtesy.
Is actually “No, there is no legal obligation. But there’s a thing called courtesy.“ And here the contradiction falls away and the discussion turns to whether there is a social expectation to be courteous. On that point my (and the above commenter, I suspect) would say that yes, of course there is an expectation of social courtesy. There’s one in every other setting too, so why not here?
As a Spaniard living in Japan, what social rules should I use to apply my social courtesy on Github?
In my experience, there are no objective social norms or definition of "courtesy". What's polite in one culture might not be in another. Projecting your own values onto others isn't helpful.