To distill a maintainer’s responsibilities into core facets, I have borrowed from Asimov’s Three Laws. Perhaps it feels like a dramatic summary of the rather mundane task of pushing to a public git remote. But if you feel that way, I’ve likely already lost you. That’s fine. These laws have my name on them, not yours.
A maintainer may not harm a user or, through inaction, allow users to come to harm
A maintainer must shepherd their project and empower the community to do the same
A maintainer must protect their own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws