Hi, this is Benjamin, behind the Castopod account.

Lately, I’ve felt harassed for not fixing a bug fast enough. Seeing the same complaint posted repeatedly, across different platforms, and being told we “kept silent” when we didn’t—it hurts.

I’m sure this wasn’t done to hurt us deliberately. But that’s how it felt.

If you dismiss that, if you deny how we feel, we’ll take that as a lack of empathy—and you will be blocked. Not because we reject feedback, but because we won’t accept being treated as if we’re not human.

We understand that waiting for a fix is frustrating. We also use open source software; we’ve been in your shoes.

So when you spot a bug, please remember: there are real people behind this project. Try to be kind.

Please don’t misunderstand: not only do we value feedback—we need it. Open source cannot exist without a community, and that includes critical feedback.

We welcome it. But empathy matters too.

Why do we do this? Because we believe in the 4 software freedoms:

The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose.

The freedom to study and change it.

The freedom to share copies.

The freedom to share your modifications.

That’s why Castopod exists.

We don’t split features into “free” and “paid.” We don’t sell essential plugins. We don’t restrict functionality.

We want full freedom. Half freedom wouldn’t make sense to us.

Some people help us—and we’re enormously grateful. Whether it’s money, time, or talent—translations, bug reports, fixes, blog posts, or just spreading the word: thank you.

Every bit of help means a lot.

Castopod doesn’t pay our rent. We’re a small team, working on this project out of passion.

And we plan to keep going. There are many things ahead, and we’re excited to share them with you.

So please: when you interact with us, remember—behind every open source project, there are real people who care.

Go podcasting!

—Benjamin