I'm just an ordinary open-source developer who casually built a small project called pyvideotrans and somehow ended up with 12.1k Stars.

By day, I'm grinding away at my day job; by night, I turn into a "volunteer" coder, offering a free video translation and dubbing tool for everyone to use.

Downloads are booming, but the Issues section is like a carnival of demands: "Can you add an alien language translation?" "Found a major bug!" "This bug could cost users big time!" "Why isn't it fixed yet? Is the project even 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 get me started. When I had fewer Stars, people would toss in a few bucks now and then. But with more Stars, I might get a measly 0.x or 0.0x yuan every couple of weeks or months. I'm worried WeChat might flag it as suspicious and block my account!

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

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

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

When I can't take it anymore, I write on my public account to earn a bit from ads—a few yuan a day, enough to buy a couple of Nescafé 3-in-1 instant coffees for some small comfort.

Might as well crown myself the "Open-Source Labor Hero" and have a laugh. If I can write some code for everyone to play with, that's a small achievement in my programmer life. As for my thinning hair? No worries—I shaved it all off long ago, and now it's shinier than the full moon!