Do we publish our roadmap?

A public roadmap builds trust and turns users into collaborators. They see you're alive, they vote, they feel heard, and some of them become your best evangelists.

It also creates a contract I never signed.

Miss a date and people feel betrayed. Ship something unplanned and they ask why their feature got skipped. Move an item down the list and someone writes a thread about how you abandoned them.

Internally my roadmap is already a mess of maybes and half-decisions. Externally, the moment I publish it, every maybe becomes a promise.

I've watched companies do this well with a "now / next / later" board and no dates, and I've watched companies get crucified for the exact same format.

Are you transparent about what's next, or do you keep it vague and ship quietly? And if you do publish, how do you keep it from becoming a cage?