How I've started to contribute to open source | Hacker News Reader

How I've started to contribute to open source

blog.binarybalance.com.au

122 pointsgaelian20 comments

It's funny. It really took me committing something to some open project to realize that all those programmers out there are actually all people like me.

When I first committed something to an OSS project, I got an amazing response full of gratitude and warmth. For me, this took a lot of anxiety out of the whole experience! Since then, I have contributed several small things to several projects. That is the way it should be!

Funny enough, my first commit to an OSS project felt very similar to my first post to a message board, my first post to a foreign message board, my first post to Hacker News, hell, in some ways even to all those first awkward sentences you exchange with any human being!

Which just proves that the Internet as a whole is actually just a bunch of people. And most of the active contributors are really nice, too!

> It's funny. It really took me committing something to some open project to realize that all those programmers out there are actually all people like me.

My experience has been very similar. It's like I knew this intellectually, but it took me actually contributing to really internalise, get over the apprehension and realise that we are all just people.

Your comment also makes me think about all those years ago when I started commenting on online forums and how intimidating yet exciting it was for me to do so, even under a pseudonym. Putting one's self out there to strangers online as so many routinely do nowadays was not something that came naturally to me. It certainly seems to be coming more naturally to many of the younger generations now though.

>my first post to Hacker News

You mean you were downvoted because you said "I agree!" and had to start with a karma of -19?

Doesn't sound fun!

Not at all. But in contrast to most forums and message boards, people seem to be pretty intelligent around here.

One of the most rewarding ways I've found to contribute to open source is to connect communities and developers. Like if someone posts a fork on github, put the original developer in contact with them and make sure there's an effort to collaborate rather than differentiate.

It seems trivial and obvious, but for the dozens of times that I've been able to make a connection it really seems to pay off. As other commenters have noted, it isn't until you're developing that you realize that other developers are just like you - the same goes with assumptions of the original project creators. "He works at Facebook, he'd never respond to me" or "She is from Germany, surely there's a language barrier", etc. are all excuses that cause forking.

As we all know, it is easier to download the source, fix your bug, and not submit a bugfix - as open source projects continue to increase exponentially, I think we'll see more of the successful projects being the ones that have people actively creating & seeking collaboration rather than assuming it will occur in the wild.

Thanks for your article. I've been trying to jump into contributing to OSS projects for some times but I've been unable to figure out where to start. "Scratch your own itch" is probably the best way to start for someone like me.

That's how many of us started, I believe.

Another great way is to find a project you use, look at the bug reports, and start fixing them. Go after the small ones, or the fun ones, whatever seems appealing. Odds are that if the bug is still open but not critical, you'll be the first one to submit the fix and start to become loved by the community!

I run an open source programming group that meets once a month in my area and also self-assembles a few times a year at programming conferences I attend. The idea is that we meet for a few hours on Friday night and the meeting is over when there is at least one patch to a project. It's fun and I've made some friends, but there is nothing as rewarding as taking a first-timer and leading them through the process of build/fix/send-patch. It a trivial process as long as someone is in the room to help you through it.

There are a lot of groups like this around the world. Search for "bug mash", "hackerspace", or "hackergarten" in your area. I highly recommend attending something like this. (And if you're in the Basel or Baden-Württemberg area then come out to my group. I'm grilling American hamburgers for everyone tomorrow night).

I believe that most open-source developers started by scratching one of their itches. Probably quite a few, too, by just open-sourcing academic work.

Now, I wonder: how many coders did start by being ordered by their boss to open-source their code and/or to contribute to an existing open-source project?

I don't know if such bosses exist. Many of my programmer friends would like to make their stuff opensource but their bosses (companies) forbid it. Though it's mostly really useful but not "trade secret" stuff.

nice article, I was ever searching for something like that!

Generally, the etiquette on HN is to use the upvote button to register that you like something, rather than to post a comment.

I don't see any problem with someone expressing verbally that they like something instead of just up voting. Though, I do see a problem when someone tells people how to express themselves.

I think you're mostly being downvoted for your second sentence:

- It's ironically hypocritical in that you're implying mtogo shouldn't tell someone how to comment while simultaneously doing it yourself.

- It's misplaced because mtogo's comment was informative and neutral while yours was opinion-based and snarky.

Aside from those issues, you're a new member weighing in on proper HN etiquette. Does that seem sensible?

I have no problem getting downvoted. To clarify though, I expressed my opinion disagreeing with mtogo's comment. I did not tell him/imply what/how he should comment. In any case, I did't know that opinion-based comments are discouraged in an opinion-based comment thread. I guess I am missing something here...

Your comment criticized mtogo for criticizing someone's comment. That is irony.

Presumably, mtogo voted JeremyS down because his comment lacked substance. Because JeremyS is a new member, he then informed him of why he voted him down and what is generally proper HN etiquette.

You then weighed in for no apparent reason. If you were speaking from expertise, experience, or authority, (e.g., if it had been pg instead of you) your opinion would carry more weight and therefore be worth stating. Instead, it just added more noise to a comment subthread lacking substance.

The point of both my comments and mtogo's are to emphasize one of the things that HN users value most: a high signal-to-noise ratio in comment threads. Pull up threads from a few years ago and you will notice a major difference in the tone and the information density. We are both trying to help new users understand how to make Hacker News a better place for everyone.

Just to clarify; I actually didn't vote JeremyS down, but rather up, because he was receiving downvotes and didn't know the etiquette. I thought i'd let him know the etiquette so he doesn't get downvoted in the future.

My own first experience in trying to contribute where far from that pleasant and successful.

This was some years ago; I was working on one of those (back then) much beloved projects of integrating Linux file servers into an existing Active Directory domain.

This works pretty neat and well with samba, kerberos and samba's "winbind" daemon. Now, that winbind daemon can store its users/user-mappings on an LDAP server thus several Linux file servers would share a common user database. Typically this was done by setting up or using a separate OpenLDAP but with a few tricks, one could actually use the Active Directory itself to store all that along-side the user and not have the hassle of having to set up yet another directory server or tree.

I tried contacting the samba team but never really got a reply other than "they will look at it" and after months of not hearing from them, I asked again and that was it; haven't heard from them since.

Hmm, I went the other route. Instead of contributing to other projects I opensourced mine. Maybe someone might find them useful. :)

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