Ask HN: Why is contributing to existing open source projects so hard? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why is contributing to existing open source projects so hard?

4 pointstomerv5 comments

I'm trying to get into open source development, and I've made a few attempts in the last year or so. It was always small bug fixes or enhancements to existing project, and the experience was consistently terrible. It made me wonder how developers get into seriously contributing to these projects - and whether it's even possible.

The main hurdle I encountered is simply lack of response from the project maintainers. This happened to me several times already: I would encounter a bug or limitation, investigate the cause, fix it, and open a pull request with as many details as I could about the issue and how I fixed it. This requires several hours of work - understanding the project structure, testing the fix, adding unit tests, and so on. You could say I did my homework. Then I waited, and waited, and waited…

The last time this happened was the most representative. I don't want to call out any specific projects - that would seem unfair - it's a well-known open source project that originates from a FAANG-level company, popular enough to appear on CVs. It's one of those libraries that is used everywhere. I encountered a bug in that library, and opened the most detailed issue I could, even pointed to specific lines of code and what needs to be changed there. Due to my previous experience, I didn't open a PR yet. I wanted to get confirmation on my observation first, and I mentioned in the issue that after getting confirmation that my direction is correct I would open a PR. The result? Complete silence. This was 2 weeks ago - should I expect to wait more for a response?

I understand that these are open source projects, and that the maintainers don't owe me anything, and so on. I'm just wondering if I'm doing something wrong. Do others here have similar experiences? How would someone get seriously involved in such a project, if just making the first steps is met with such roadblocks? This reminds me of xkcd #2347, where all modern digital infrastructure depends on "a project some random person in Nebraska has been thanklessly maintaining since 2003". It's like I want to help that person, but they aren't answering my calls.

I've been contributing to OSS projects for a few years now and all I can say is that it depends on the project.

I have a few open PRs to a small-ish project for about a year now. The maintainers haven't even looked at it. The PRs in question replace broken CI, fix bugs etc.

On the other hand, I have merged PRs to a large project that took the maintainers a few hours to review and merge. The PRs here are minor improvements.

My take is: do not give up. There is a random person in Nebraska that would appreciate your help, you just didn't find them yet.

> There is a random person in Nebraska that would appreciate your help, you just didn't find them yet.

To add to that: it's also possible that they'll appreciate the help when they see it -- but they're out doing shopping for their family / at work / taking some time for themselves at the moment.

Estimating time to complete FOSS contributions can be really tricky because the social considerations are less predictable (generally) than in a workplace environment.

(I say this all as someone who has offered patches, badgered people for attention, and then later felt bad about doing so)

I'm trying to get into open source development

That's your goal.

No project is obligated to help you meet it.

I mean you found and fixed some bugs.

Whether or not they get incorporated into the code base only makes a difference on your resume.

This requires several hours of work

If you're not into it, don't do it.

Expecting a reward is a friction point for a community of volunteers.

originates from a FAANG-level company

FAANG-level companies have business considerations that you cannot possibly be aware of because they are confidential and proprietary. They manage open source projects for their own benefit primarily and the benefit of others only incidentally.

Complete silence.

Move on to something else. Good luck.

> I mean you found and fixed some bugs. > Whether or not they get incorporated into the code base only makes a difference on your resume.

That's a pretty cynical take! If they get incorporated into the code, then the bug will be fixed -> everybody wins. I didn't write anything about my resume, or my reasons for wanting to contribute to open source. Seems like you're assuming something about my intentions.

> If you're not into it, don't do it. > Expecting a reward is a friction point for a community of volunteers.

Again, seems that you're assuming something about me. The only "reward" I expect is for my PR to be eventually accepted, assuming it meets the standards of the project - or a short message telling me what's missing.

I'm not into writing code, testing it, etc., only for it to go into a black hole. I'm not doing it to learn, or to pad my resume. I'm doing it to improve open source projects. For that to happen, the code needs to be eventually merged.

> FAANG-level companies have business considerations that you cannot possibly be aware of because they are confidential and proprietary. They manage open source projects for their own benefit primarily and the benefit of others only incidentally.

This specific project originates from a FAANG-level company, but is now standalone.

experienced these too, wonder too what actuall the works system, method or style/way

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