@019aa5eb Do add a bit more to this interesting discussion, there is also another dimension, especially in bigger Free software projects (looking at you, #GNU) - and especially in the C world.

These projects are often made up of a community of self-proclaimed "elite hackers". They pretend to be open, but they don't want contributions. They make it so hard to contribute, that it is almost impossible to "get in". Look at the FSF/GNU, they really suffer from that.

And when you dare to propose an idea and send a patch, you risk of being publicily ridiculed at best, or at least ignored. Or someone is screaming at you: "shut up".

I gave up on trying to contribute to bigger projects very fast. I'm not an "elite hacker". Running this instance is my way of contributing in a way, no GNU hacker can tell me how inferior my contribution is. 

 @488cf7e2 I too have found it very strange how hostile some of the FSF/GNU people are to collaboration with some projects being impossible to even contact. I always thought that motivation wise they were in the first group but their behavior shows otherwise. They don't seem to be in the second group though, certainly their behavior doesn't seem self interested... It is a puzzle... 

 Because,  they think their idea is the best.