A few weeks ago, I posted a simple question on Reddit's open source community:
"Can you give me a good reason not to open source a project?"
I wanted to understand the full picture, both the enthusiasm and the caution around open-sourcing, especially for apps that aren't based on groundbreaking technology, but on network effects and community.
The post exploded.
It had 100K views, drew hundreds of thoughtful DMs and comments that started private conversations with developers, founders, and open source veterans. I don’t post much, my posts don’t have much traction, so I knew I touched a nerve.
The community's generosity in sharing real, raw, sometimes painful experiences was incredible.
Today, I want to share what I learned and why these lessons are not just about code, but about building open startups in a world that's still figuring out what "open" really means.
From the responses, it was clear there were two broad camps:
It was a very civilized conversation, not ideological, practical. People weren't fighting over values, they were wrestling with how to make openness work without sinking the ship. Perhaps the true spirit of Open Source is being open-minded, for the chat remained respectful and constructive despite disagreements. Perhaps I should have titled this post "An Ode to the Open Source Community".
The most impactful insights came from people sharing their lived experiences:
The Developer Who Quit Coding Entirely: One commenter shared the story of a friend who started as an "open-source idealist" creating free alternatives to niche subscription products. After facing relentless criticism and hate comments about his code quality, his mental health deteriorated so significantly that he first switched to releasing only binaries, then abandoned coding altogether. As one commenter put it:
"For every 1 pull request you will get 100 issues filled with nothing but 'the dev is lazy, doesn't care about people using his product, and writes terrible code.'"