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Ask HN: What open source projects need help?

203 points aaronbrethorst | 6 comments | 16 Nov 24 17:22 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom

Let's match open source projects that need help with developers looking to contribute. Think of this as "Who's Hiring" but for open source - a monthly thread to surface interesting projects that could use more hands.

Please include: Project name and description (if not widely known); Tech stack; Areas needing help (DOCS, CODE, DESIGN, etc.); Level (BEGINNER-FRIENDLY if applicable); Email address or other means of contacting you.

Ground rules:

Post only if you maintain/run the project

One post per project/suite

No commercial recruitment

No thread complaints

Developers: Only reach out if you actually want to contribute.

Show context
not_your_vase ◴[16 Nov 24 17:28 UTC] No.42157587[source]▶
There is a help-wanted tag on github for this: https://github.com/topics/help-wanted

(I know that GH is not the whole world, but it stores an overwhelming majority of the OSS ecosystem)

replies(1): >>42157889 #
1. m4rcs90 ◴[16 Nov 24 18:08 UTC] No.42157889[source]▶
Funny that all Microsoft projects appear on top. They seem to struggle very hard.
replies(2): >>42157962 #>>42158945 #
2. samatman ◴[16 Nov 24 18:16 UTC] No.42157962[source]▶
The list is ranked in a completely transparent way. It's anything with the help wanted tag, ordered by number of stars.

So this isn't some sneaky Microsoft thumb on the scale, the way you appear to be implying. Simpler than that: I doubt many projects know about this list (I for one just saw it for the first time), and since GitHub put it together, Microsoft codebases got the memo to add the tag.

If you want to see other popular projects at the top of this list, open up a PR to have them add the tag.

replies(1): >>42158255 #
3. mcmcmc ◴[16 Nov 24 18:47 UTC] No.42158255[source]▶
Personally I find it funny one of the most valuable companies in the world is begging for free help maintaining their software. Gotta be cheap to get rich I guess.
replies(1): >>42158425 #
4. lytedev ◴[16 Nov 24 19:07 UTC] No.42158425{3}[source]▶
Some open source projects don't necessarily want help. I don't think adding a help-wanted tag qualifies for begging as much as letting you know that contributors are actually welcome if you're interested.
replies(1): >>42163906 #
5. rty32 ◴[16 Nov 24 20:17 UTC] No.42158945[source]▶
To be honest, I think it is true. They declared "issue bankruptcy" in one of they repo:

https://github.com/microsoft/TypeScript-Website/issues/2804

Contrary to many people's perception, Microsoft is one of the biggest contributors to open source, whether for projects they "own" like TypeScript or VSCode, or other common projects like Linux. The amount of users and bugs/feature requests etc don't match headcounts available at Microsoft.

6. andrea81 ◴[17 Nov 24 12:43 UTC] No.42163906{4}[source]▶
What a shame, one of the biggest companies of our time with tags looking for help. Sell it however you want, but the tag is there and this is a pitiful image.

I feel sorry for all the naive developers who will waste their time working for free for a parasitic corporation.