I maintain a small open-source project called pubm. pubm is a tool for complex publish and release workflows. Since the project is still small, I use GitHub issues as my planning system. Every feature idea, rough product thought, and future workflow becomes an issue. One of those issues was about release channels: stable, beta, rc, canary, nightly, and how pubm should treat them as first-class release workflows. Then someone commented. At first, it felt good. The comment sounded helpful. The person talked about testing, validating workflows, and helping me get better feedback on the project. I was excited. That detail matters. Small open-source projects do not get much attention. When someone shows up and says they might help, it is easy to lean forward too quickly. English is not my first language either, so I tend to give vague wording extra patience. I replied. Then the conversation continued. The more I read, the more something felt wrong. The replies were friendly, but broad.…