If you can't come to peace with that possibility, this approach isn't for you. Having to close up isn't an inevitability, but grappling with that prospect is an essential exercise.
It's truly not easy for ordinary humans to withstand the vitriol of a furious userbase. So, remove yourself from the channels where that vitriol gushes and roils.
The key is avoid making promises you can't keep -- either explicitly or implicitly. Putting a project on Github, home of "social coding", makes it hard to tune out the din. So... maybe don't keep your project on Github.
"If you can't come to peace with that possibility, this approach isn't for you."
Sure, but i mean in the sense that what you suggest is not a viable method for a lot of projects, unless, as you say, they also disconnect completely from the world.
That is not the same as existential futility - it is going off grid.
I vehemently disagree with this false dichotomy that either a project must strive endlessly or exile itself. Gradations are possible, and the way you achieve them is by strategically choosing the terms of engagement.
Embracing existential futility puts you in a state of mind to accept the consequences of subsequent concrete actions which limit future prospects of glory.
" Gradations are possible, and the way you achieve them is by strategically choosing the terms of engagement."
In my experience, you are simply wrong.
You don't get to actually make this happen. You may want it to happen, and i agree it would be very nice. But it is also unrealistic, in the same way lots of polarizing things are but shouldn't be.
So you may not like that dichotomy, but in my experience, it is the practical effect.
I'd love to see your examples of projects that are both fairly successful and choose somewhere along the gradient you have in mind.
If you can't come to peace with that possibility, this approach isn't for you. Having to close up isn't an inevitability, but grappling with that prospect is an essential exercise.
It's truly not easy for ordinary humans to withstand the vitriol of a furious userbase. So, remove yourself from the channels where that vitriol gushes and roils.
The key is avoid making promises you can't keep -- either explicitly or implicitly. Putting a project on Github, home of "social coding", makes it hard to tune out the din. So... maybe don't keep your project on Github.