Simply allowing people to see your code doesn’t give them any rights to use it. OSS provides a license that allows you to use software without paying the creator, that’s the donation.
As to being a maintainer, if you’re using that code for something and updating it whenever you personally have a problem that’s still a maintainer. Consider a geologist who created an absurdly accurate GPS for exactly the hardware they have. If’s it’s working for them they might go years without making an update, and that’s fine. Someone saying there is a bug when used on farm equipment simply is’t their problem. Even a different geologist seeing issues south of the equator isn’t their problem. The software is free and almost sufficient, feel free to pay someone if it’s not doing what you want.
The core issue is OSS is free to use and modify, but that also means the maintainer is free of all obligations.
As to being a maintainer, if you’re using that code for something and updating it whenever you personally have a problem that’s still a maintainer. Consider a geologist who created an absurdly accurate GPS for exactly the hardware they have. If’s it’s working for them they might go years without making an update, and that’s fine. Someone saying there is a bug when used on farm equipment simply is’t their problem. Even a different geologist seeing issues south of the equator isn’t their problem. The software is free and almost sufficient, feel free to pay someone if it’s not doing what you want.
The core issue is OSS is free to use and modify, but that also means the maintainer is free of all obligations.