In polite conversation, avoid sharing opinions with people who don't ask. If someone wants an opinion, they'll ask for it. Unsolicited opinions are generally more acceptable in conversations between people who are already friends.
sunjam discussions on the show
Monologues aren't discussions. Discussions are interactive conversations between two or more people. When you're talking into a microphone by yourself, you're not having a discussion by definition. Sometimes you have (or imitate) discussions during which your opinion could be organically solicited. However, your stated goal in the previous episode is that this is all you:
I think that you need to decide if you want to be a verbal RSS newsfeed, a talk show, a learning exercise, a teaching experiment, or something else. It is unreasonable to expect The James Opinion not to be represented on The James Show, which is currently what you are producing.
There is a fine line to stride between being pointlessly hostile and being honest. Maybe tangible examples would be helpful:
Verbal newsfeed: AnyType is a piece of libre note-taking/mental-mapping software. It aims to compete with Obsidian and Notion.
Honest criticism: AnyType is a piece of libre note-taking/mental-mapping software that looks nice on the outside, but has some serious issues with the basic functions of such an application. The application will intermittently delete characters, words, sentences, or entire pages of user-generated content. This happens while the software is being used or when it is launched. This frustrating bug has been reported on multiple occasions to the developers on various different platforms. Usually the response is something along the lines of "send us an email" or "should be fixed now" with no visibility into the actual cause of the problem or how to prevent it. Additionally, the issue crops back up from time to time between releases, indicating that the "fix" isn't anything more than a bandaid. This has been happening off and on for years and really hurts AnyType's ability to compete with alternatives like Notion or Obsidian.
Pointless hostility: AnyType is a piece of shit. It's a "note taking" software that doesn't even take notes. You can start typing, but it's randomly going to delete what you typed. I really cannot begin to grasp how the simplest functionality of actually recording and keeping user input is so unreliable in a piece of software where that is the entire point. This garbage has been masquerading as useful software for years and the devs can't fix this seemingly simple problem. I can't fathom why anyone would use this trash when Obsidian and Notion exist.
When criticizing something, especially on the Internet, it is respectful to keep your statements in the top 3 levels of the pyramid.
sunjam Open source developers and projects are of course doing their best
Sometimes this is true but a lot of the time it is not. I would venture to say that most work is not people's best work. This is not a new idea by any means.
sunjam people avoid being openly critical when discussing open source publicly
I don't think that this is true at all. Maybe our filter bubbles show us different windows into public discussion. It would be interesting to see real data backing up either of our stances on this point but I suspect that compiling such data would be a significant undertaking. Raw anecdotes and cherry-picked examples aren't sufficient.
sunjam half of people don't like it and most tend to not share
In this hypothetical you are focusing on the empty half of the glass. Additionally, most opinions are not a 50/50 split. Your vibe attracts your tribe.
sunjam Can this discussion happen without people deciding such a discussion is some sort of direct attack.
Some people do see polite disagreement as an attack. Some people don't see extreme personal hostility as an attack. I'm not sure that tailoring your content to the lowest common denominator of mental/emotional resilience is a good idea. The whole class learns at the speed of the loudest dumb kid.