> In fact, annoying volunteers tends to reduce their voluntarism... That's fair. But people age and, if they're any good at what they do, have less time to volunteer as they get busier and promote through their career.
So how do you encourage new volunteers to join and replace veterans? How do you keep newcomers feeling welcomed and engaged? Projects wonder why it's so hard finding new maintainers when existing ones leave. For example, the Qt maintainers are quitting, and I haven't seen a succession plan. I think a lot of it has to do with the vocal minority who defend incivility and blame newcomers for conflicts. And that's fine if you want to run your community that way, but don't ask why a project collapsed when nobody's qualified or interested in maintaining it. I just don't see how that's sustainable. Neither do people who've studied this and trained me on governance.
