A very common email reply to me:
"#curl is not deemed important enough for a support deal. I will instead submit a public issue/discussion item about [the discussed matter]"
@bagder are you ever tempted to reply "send pull requests instead" ?
@wolf480pl sure, but I try to resist temptations of strong sarcasms and bitterness as they don't help
@bagder @wolf480pl but it does go directly to the bottom of the ToDo list...
@bagder "public issues are generally not deemed important enough for me to deal out support"
@bagder isn't this similar to the bystander phenomenon where everybody uses curl so everybody assumes it's not their responsibility to maintain?
Have you found a constructive way to solve this issue?
@thinkMoult yes, it is exactly that. I'm trying out different approaches to this but I cannot say that I have found a really good one yet...
#NAFO @thinkMoult @bagder IMHO the solution is the EU's Cyber Resilience act: essentially it tells downstream users: "either fund a structure to support maintaining the code or take full responsibility for it".
@jmaris @thinkMoult yeah, the optimistic take on that is that it will drive companies to pay up (to projects), but I think we need to wait and see if that is actually what is going to happen...
@bagder @thinkMoult perhaps, yes, but let's see... I've already heard whispers from the automobile industry about this.
@bagder @jmaris @thinkMoult I’m always amazed when clients have no problem paying for 5-10 contractors at $200/hour to try and build something but a single $100 donation to support a project the entire company depends upon is considered communism.
@teotwaki Or worse than communism: dealing with the procurement process.
@teotwaki @bagder @thinkMoult it's wild, but I think it is changing. Open Source still has an insane competitive advantage over building yourself from scratch, even if it requires spending a bit of money on supporting development
@bagder I recall you posting mails from some organisations which sounded quite different, e.g. requiring a security check or the like 
Seems people can't decide
@bagder Maybe only accept paid bug reports!
Set a price, and if not paid in a month, delete the request.
@bagder Have you ever thought about a tip jar style of support?
For example, if they do not want to buy a year's worth of support, they can tip 1 week support (+20%) and get the item looked at in 6 months, or tip 1 month (+20%) and get the issue looked at in 3 months.
@bagder Too bad they are not deemed important enough to get a reply on that new issue...
@bagder And then if some vulnerability is found, then everyone goes crazy and blame on "lack of support"
@bagder In other words, we'll use your tool but we aren't willing to pay to support it. Ah, the wonders of open source and free as in beer.
@bagder Working all the company paperwork to get a support contract is hard, which is why I avoid doing it even though I know I should.
@bagder One can only naively hope they realize that cuts both ways… their issue may not be deemed important enough either.