The Maintainer's Marathon: Strategies for Sustainable Open Source

Open source is often described as a sprint to the next release, but for maintainers, it's a marathon. Burnout is a silent but serious threat to the health of our most beloved FOSS projects. Drawing from real-world experiences, this talk addresses the challenges of long-term maintenance head-on. We'll discuss practical strategies for managing issue backlogs, creating contribution guidelines that actually work, automating repetitive tasks, establishing clear project governance, and, most importantly, learning to say "no" to protect your own well-being. This isn't about code; it's about building resilient projects and communities for the long haul.