An innovative way to increase developer contribution to open-source projects?

2 pointsjuandavidcruzs2y ago3 comments

Over the years, I've utilized a lot of Open Source projects, but I feel like I (and maybe a lot of people) leech a lot more than what I contribute.

I'm just thinking out loud. Is it just me? What's stopping people from contributing? How can we change that?

Is it the steep learning curve of understanding a new codebase? Is it impostor syndrome, thinking one could not do a better job than the core contributors? Or is it simply that sometimes merging a PR is a pain; due to a lack of standardization of the contributing process?

I would love to chat about this since I'm thinking about open-sourcing a NoCode platform I built, but I fear no one will even care. However, it does take time to clean up the project and make it more understandable for new contributors.

3 comments

Am4TIfIsER0ppos2y ago

Not accepting contributions by email. I ain't gonna use my employer's github account for my own contributions. I ain't gonna sign some contribution agreement. I ain't gonna register somewhere that requires 2fa.

Once I did cold send a patch by email but I assume it ended up in spam.

orionblastar2y ago

Document the code and use comments. Offer bug bounties to fix bugs. Have a contest for top coder with a prize.

juandavidcruzsOP2y ago

I agree. Money is a big factor. People are too busy these days. I was looking into Open Source projects, but most of them don't offer bounties. Maybe it's a chicken-egg problem?

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