And this is precisely the argument to be made for an OSS project having paid employees, even part-time contractors, over and above OSS contributors, and why most large-ish OSS projects have same. It's harder to project-manage (and there is the potential for a weird hierarchy thing that many, many projects have struggled with over the years) but WHEN YOU PAY PEOPLE, EVEN A LITTLE BIT, EVEN AS CONTRACTORS, YOU CAN TELL THEM WHAT TO WORK ON. (And when you run out of paid contractors to order around, that's when you start promising people hand-knit socks. Not that I'm frantically trying to finish this pair before OSCON or anything.)

Just ... the complete ignorance of *every single modern open source project that went before* is staggering. I don't expect you to know the history of modern open source all the way back to the Linux kernel release and the development of the first GPL in order to start a new OSS project and I'm certainly not saying you have to emulate them in all things -- I'm the first to admit that contemporary OSS projects are kind of dysfunctional at times -- but for gods' sake, when you are a more dysfunctional OSS project than aforementioned Linux kernel, HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM.

BEST PRACTICES, PEOPLE. BEST PRACTICES. TWO DECADES OF WORK HAVE GONE INTO THEM. IF YOU ARE IGNORANT OF THEM, YOU WILL REINVENT THE THINGS THAT FAILED AND RESULTED IN THEM. BADLY.

*breathes deeply*