Re:Ask HN: How do I contribute to open-source projects
by twunde on Monday February 23, 2015 @11:01AM
(#9094974)
Don't feel bad. At least you're using their code which validates them open-sourcing it.
There is plenty that anyone can do to help. Probably the easiest is to update documentation and fix any spelling mistakes. Those are typically easy for maintainers to merge in. Other things I've contributed were bug fixes, smaller feature enhancements.
I'd focus on small to mid-size projects since they are always looking for contributors. With more mature projects like Rails, Zend, Linux there may be a higher bar to get your merges integrated and therefore it can take longer for your PR to get merged in (I believe my PR to enhance an exception message in Zend took about a month including adding a new test and signing their license) That's definitely on the longer side. The nice part about those projects is that the devs there will offer guidance on what you need to do and you'll pick up on some best practices
There is plenty that anyone can do to help. Probably the easiest is to update documentation and fix any spelling mistakes. Those are typically easy for maintainers to merge in. Other things I've contributed were bug fixes, smaller feature enhancements.
I'd focus on small to mid-size projects since they are always looking for contributors. With more mature projects like Rails, Zend, Linux there may be a higher bar to get your merges integrated and therefore it can take longer for your PR to get merged in (I believe my PR to enhance an exception message in Zend took about a month including adding a new test and signing their license) That's definitely on the longer side. The nice part about those projects is that the devs there will offer guidance on what you need to do and you'll pick up on some best practices