> If you've ever had a user say “something’s broken” and then ghost you forever, you probably get where I’m coming from. As a consumer who reports bugs, I’d actually say the opposite problem is just as common — when the company ghosts you after you’ve taken the time to report an issue. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve used the official channels — bug trackers, support forums, contact forms — only to hear nothin…
For every user who reports a clear, reproducible defect, there 10 others who report non-reproducible issues, who conflate features with bugs, who ghost, who use issues for support or questions, who are just angry about something and think you're an idiot, who report (since fixed) defects against old versions, or who report duplicates to existing issues. It's a very noisy channel.
It can lead to a crappy outcome for both the reporter who earnestly tried to help and for the developer who wishes they had the time to carefully address every reported issue but just don't.
Sometimes, all that's feasible is making time to triage/acknowledge each issue in a reasonable timeframe and to be forthright about its prioritization.
As an aside, I find your opinion that "if I give you my time in the form of a bug report, the least you can do is give me your time" to be common. We rarely have the right to demand another person's attention, though. Especially with respect to non-commercial open source hobbyist maintainers.