About six months ago, I stumbled across a Github repository with zero stars, called Chromium Legacy (https://github.com/blueboxd/chromium-legacy). A seemingly-unknown Github account, with no profile and no other notable projects, had single-handedly backported Chromium Canary to work on very old versions of OS X, alongside an automated build system to keep everything up-to-date. Due to my interests, I was delighted!
The port had some major bugs, but I opened Github issues, and one by one, the developer fixed them. In a couple of cases, I helped track down the offending code, but he's done the vast majority of the work.
At this point, I have definitely opened more issues on Chromium Legacy than anyone else. I opened two more just hours ago, and I was going to open a third... but then I didn't, because I was feeling guilty. He's always thankful for the reports, but he usually apologizes (!), which makes me worry I'm just creating all this work for him... so I don't quite know what to do.
I think you should continue opening issues for bugs you find and try not to feel guilty about it. I know I'm personally delighted when someone opens an issue on any of my repositories with a similar amount of care you seem to put into your reports. The maintainer you're reporting to likely appreciates you and wants to continue discovering bugs and fixing them (you can always just outright ask if you're unsure).
> He's always thankful for the reports, but he usually apologizes (!), which makes me worry I'm just creating all this work for him
The maintainer appears to be Japanese. I suspect this is just a cultural thing surrounding apologies you're reading too much into.
Be polite and unexpecting of any fix and do all you can in the report to make it easy to fix and you’ll be appreciated (even if just by others who find your report).
People underestimate how valuable a good bug report is - with details, minimum examples, and workarounds. Especially workarounds - as you may be the only useful response people find.
Why not ask him? Maybe give him a call? You have already spent lots of time “together”. You are de facto some kind of companions. I’d definitely be delighted. Mostly it’s me reaching out to users.
> If it was me, I'd just be happy that someone else is using the code I wrote!
Haha, seriously. As I was reading this article I was thinking to myself "well shit, at least people are bitching about this guy's projects; that means people are actually using 'em".
Not that I'm complaining, of course. I'm quite content in my obscurity :)
> He's always thankful for the reports, but he usually apologizes (!), which makes me worry I'm just creating all this work for him... so I don't quite know what to do.
So, this is probably a cultural issue.
Have you tried heading this off by apologizing first, in the report? Alternately, being thankful in the report may work out better. Or you can try both.
Note that mirroring like this can come across as sarcasm or ridicule if you recycle their exact phrasing or exaggerate it, so don't do that.
I think pacing yourself can be important. Sometimes it does help to hold off on that request till the next day.
I have very little open source experience, but I am thinking of the experience of support engineer sending requests to development. If you hit them with too much too fast, you will tend to provoke worries or exhaustion.
That being said, making 3 issue reports when the repo had only 1 besides that doesn't seem like a problem. Developers do like to feel like their work is getting some attention.
The port had some major bugs, but I opened Github issues, and one by one, the developer fixed them. In a couple of cases, I helped track down the offending code, but he's done the vast majority of the work.
At this point, I have definitely opened more issues on Chromium Legacy than anyone else. I opened two more just hours ago, and I was going to open a third... but then I didn't, because I was feeling guilty. He's always thankful for the reports, but he usually apologizes (!), which makes me worry I'm just creating all this work for him... so I don't quite know what to do.