[BucketSort]

I don't like conflating the two concerns either, and I'm not saying you condone the behavior, but once it happens, dealing with it appropriately is important. You don't want people like the poster above going around feeling like their issue was unjustly ignored, and that they have no recourse for the resolution of their issue. I mean, do what you will... this is just a common thing I see which causes friction between users and maintainers.

[knolleary]

I agree, which is why I asked for an example of where they felt dismissed or ignored so we could understand and learn from it.

[kkarakk]

1. dismiss issues from actual users

2. rationalize decision

3. ask for examples when ex-users bring up stories of being dismissed. rarely get said examples coz ex-users have moved onto another project with actual support. this supports your decision to dismiss support issues and send them to the magically huge forum community.

4. why is no one using our project?why do we get badmouthed on STEM oriented social media?

There's a reason people goto github instead of forums, they're looking for technical help not a chat

[eitland]

Part of your answer is reasonable, I feel this a bit too.

But now you and others have a real opportunity to discuss the issue here on neutral ground and I feel it is rude to just dismiss the invitation to provide actual examples.

Even my favourite elitist deletionism club: Stack Overflow, has been changing their ways lately it seems and are accepting requests to undelete.