I, an ordinary open-source developer, somehow ended up with a small project called pyvideotrans that has unexpectedly reached 12.1k Stars.

During the day, I work my day job, and at night, I transform into a "volunteer" coder, offering a free video translation and dubbing tool for everyone to use.

Downloads are booming, but the Issues section feels like a carnival of demands: "Can you add an alien language translation?" "Found a major bug!" "This bug could cost users a fortune!" "Why isn't it fixed yet? Is the project still alive?" Staring at the screen, I can't help but grumble: This is open-source, how did I become a full-time customer service rep?

Donations? Don't even mention it. When there were fewer Stars, I'd get the occasional donation. Now that the Stars are higher, maybe once every couple of weeks or a month, I'll see a donation of 0.x yuan or even 0.0x yuan. I'm worried WeChat might flag it as suspicious and freeze my account!

Among the users, there are always some "pro gamers" who casually comment after using it: "It's okay, a bit rough around the edges." "Good enough, but not perfect." I almost twisted my mousepad into a pretzel—this is a free little tool, what more do you want?

But then I think, open-source was my choice, and "freeloading" is the norm. What else can I do?

12.1k Stars sounds impressive, but at 2 a.m., facing a screen full of requests and messy code, my mood is darker than the night outside.

When I feel like giving up, I write on my public account to earn a bit of ad revenue. A few yuan a day is enough to buy a couple of Nestlé 3-in-1 instant coffees—a small comfort.

Might as well dub myself the "Open-Source Grunt Hero" and have some fun with it. If I can write some code for everyone to play around with, that's a small achievement in my programming career. As for my thinning hair? No worries, I've already shaved it all off—smoother and brighter than the full moon!