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

Posted by juandavidcruzs on Tuesday March 28, 2023 @08:51PM
from the self-post dept.

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 | 2 points | on HN )

Re:An innovative way to increase developer contribution to o... by Am4TIfIsER0ppos on Wednesday March 29, 2023 @12:57PM (#35359979)

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.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:An innovative way to increase developer contribution to o... by orionblastar on Tuesday March 28, 2023 @09:00PM (#35350563)

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

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:An innovative way to increase developer contribution to o... by juandavidcruzs on Tuesday March 28, 2023 @09:26PM (#35350823)

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?

[ Parent | on HN ]