Documentation is the last thing to get done (if at all) and the least glamorous, but it needs to be done.
This is especially easy to do if the project has a wiki.
Documentation done right is a real joy. Of course to do it right, one needs to completely understand what is going on. It takes some real discipline to get to that point, and then not skip to more exciting things.
While this is true, there's not much of a positive feedback loop on doing documentation. At best, you get a nod and a vaguely wary glance reserved for people who memorize the telephone book.
Are there any particularly skilled documentation/technical writers in open source? They aren't getting enough recognition.
This a million times. I could care less if the code has a weird cornercase TODO, as long as that gotcha is documented!