The problem I have is the sense "you're only allowed to ask for progress or give direction if you code it".
Maybe you're eg a UI/UX expert, you can help plan the direction for a project, feedback the changes needed and why, help make the project a success but just aren't competent enough to code those changes. Sure, no-one owes you their FOSS work, but it seems like we lose something if the only input allowed is from people able to do the coding.
Of course you might also just be a user. If you pay it forward, do you get to make a feature request?? If I don't code it myself ... maybe I should stop being a user if I can't contribute code?
Demanding work for free, and offering suggestions for improvements can be seen as synonymous, but they can actually be vastly different.
Projects I use heavily, like Ubuntu, I try to make myself useful offering advice on forums. That's not putting "money" in the bank of any coders but seems like it's in the spirit of FOSS - contributing what we can to create a better system.
