Ask HN: Getting into Open Source?

Do you want to be a maintainer or a contributor?

I recommend to pick a project you are already using and you like. Send bug reports and look how/where they fix them. If you know how to fix it, try to send a pull request.

If you have a feature you like, try sending a pull requests. Start with small improvements, like 1 or 2 days of work. You never know if your change is in the vision of the maintainer, or it breaks something or the maintainer is just a moron. Be prepare to fix your PR because each project has it's own secret weird rules. Spaces or tabs? Did you add tests for the fix/feature?

If you are making tools for yourself to make your development life easier or automate some boring stuff, you can share them publicly on GitHub or some other place. I think it is a good and easy way to get into open source because you are working on tools that you use yourself. So you will be able to keep up the momentum of working on your project.