Comment by itronitron

at least some of the toxicity in a community around an open source project is due to the pressure the participants feel in maintaining both their own professional reputation and the viability of the project, and there are positive ways to engage with the core committers that will create goodwill all around.

I hope people consider the potential of playing the long game when engaging with a community. Yes there are assholes in the world but they frequently move on to other pursuits, or just die, and after they are gone it's just amazing how excited people are to get things done.