NumFOCUS

Am I the only one that worries that "GitHub Sponsors" will make free software development less cooperative and more transactional?

Not the only one. The entitlement effect of donors on maintainers will also be interesting to watch.

This is why I resisted all attempts to monetize my projects. I want users and collaborators, not customers. Piping money through @NumFOCUS et al probably helps, though.

That entitlement can be a good thing though. There is loads of open source software used for mission critical things that is low quality in various ways. Yes, taking money will increase expectations of professionalism. Not good for some projects, great for others.

In my experience it's *time* that leads to professionalism more than anything else, and there are no shortcuts. $$ can create time, of course, but only under very narrow circumstances, even less so for "small" money.