Ask HN: How to get to “commit” on a good open source project?

3 pointsalanl15y ago2 comments

I want to get involved in an open source project, but I thought I'd ask the HNers for some advice first.

Here's what I have come up with as my initial to-do list:

(1) Find an interesting project that has some momentum.

(2) Study the project src.

(3) Learn the source control environment. (e.g github)

(4) Follow the forums, and answer some questions.

(5) Find a bug I can fix.

(6) Find a feature I can add.

What else should I do?

I am also interested in advice on human behaviours and politics in OS development communities, (i.e.)

What kind of things should I expect to see in succeeding/failing OS project communities?

Thanks in advance.

2 comments

2 comments · 1 top-level

placer1415y ago· 1 in thread

While i'm new to OS contributing, I've found dealing with communities (especially in IRC) in a way that discourages vampires (http://www.slash7.com/pages/vampires) and promotes friendly urges to "learn more" are generally appreciated if handled diplomatically.

I'm attempting to get more involved in the CakePHP community myself and am taking the tact of contributing to smaller supporting projects (their documentation) and lurking in the IRC chat to understand other people's problems, learn from them and get to know the core developers.

Edit: And never have the expectation that you'll ever get to work on core development. (Not that you can't, but this mantra will help to keep your motivations altruistic.)

alanlOP15y ago

Cheers, I hadn't thought about contributing to documentation as a good starting point.

I had assumed I wouldn't be contributing core code, my motivation is simply an urge to code more outside of my day job, and to get some good/fun experience doing it.

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