> everyone has a right to expect help and a right to give help

This might make sense when asking a stranger for directions or for someone to help with your car problem, because the relationship is 1:1.

But this breaks down in contexts where scale is a factor.

When assisting users of your project, the relationship is 1:many. And if the project is popular, it is unfair to expect the author to be helping so many people.

I don't really see how 1:to many makes any difference in principle. Perhaps you were thinking of the amount of effort to help the many? As in 1:1 case it is up to the helper to decide how many resources, if any, to spend on helping. A society where the default position is that people deserve help is different from one that is based on the survival of the fittest.

Even if the default position is to help, it can't be unconditional, there are limits. You don't have a right to expect help when it places an unreasonable burden on the helper.

> I think everyone has a right to expect help

Of the people with whom you have formed strong social bonds, yes.

Of random strangers? .. I don't think so.

Unless they are bound by some sort of a contract (employees, servants, etc).

I upvoted you because I think it's an interesting position, but you should realize that adding duties will discourage people from doing any contributions at all. It starts to feel like a case of "no good deed going unpunished".

I wasn't thinking of legal rights and obligations but rather of a moral ethos.

The alternative brought to it's logical conclusion is Shkreli and rasing medicine prices by thousand percent.

The alternative to giving away your personal time for free to an open-source project is gouging people on vital medication? That doesn't seem true in any sense.

A right to "expect" is a right to control your own though, unless you mean something else?