#emacs on Freenode is full of friendly, helpful people. I've occasionally seen users get help from the maintainer of the mode they're using!
miniblog.
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The vast majority of libraries have a single maintainer. Even if you weight by downloads, roughly half of downloaded libraries have a single maintainer too.
Wonderful post from the lead LLVM maintainer reflecting on how the project is run, the design issues in LLVM today, and opportunities to make it better:
One interesting side effect of software productivity increasing: libraries can become more idiosyncratic.
It's easier than ever to release important libraries as an individual. Single-maintainer projects inevitably have more personality -- for both good and bad!
