[carlosjobim]

I'm sorry, but what kind of fantasy is this? Here's how it works in reality:

    - Customers: Hey Company X, this feature provided by libY is broken.

    - Company X: This makes us lose money, but it's complicated. Tell Mr. Z.

    - Customers: We don't care who Mr. Z is or who is responsible. If your company does not fix the problem we are going to fucking murder you.

No paying customer will ever accept that a company tries to shift the blame to somebody else. So Mr. Z is free to ignore anything that company asks from him, reputation intact.

[frankdejonge]

This I would strongly dispute. I’ve seen it first hand many times that developers who ignore such things are definitely finding the negative consequences of it. It takes very careful maneuvering not to get burned, either by reputation damage or to burn out.

[carlosjobim]

So your "reputation" among a bunch of parasites takes a hit? Who cares about what they think? They're not giving you any money anyway. They're just using you.

It's like if a group of bums in the park think I'm a cool guy because I give them cigarettes when they ask. Great. And if I stop giving them free cigarettes then they say amongst themselves "man, that guy is a real jerk". Ok, should I care about what a bunch of free loading bums think?

Of course I understand that I will be down voted for this. Because people who love being victimized hates when people point out that they're being taken advantage of.

[frankdejonge]

While you might see them as parasites, their community reputation may be very different. To fit into your scenario, you may need to get work from the other bums.

[carlosjobim]

If people demand that you work for free for their monetary benefit and badmouth you if you don't, then that's not a "community". Those are people you want nothing to do with. Most businesses understand that they have to pay for every benefit or service they get from third parties.