Most active commenters
  • rty32(3)

←back to thread

Ask HN: What open source projects need help?

203 points aaronbrethorst | 16 comments | 16 Nov 24 17:22 UTC | HN request time: 0.822s | 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.

1. hombre_fatal ◴[16 Nov 24 18:27 UTC] No.42158088[source]▶
I'm skeptical that this does anything. I'd wager that just about nobody is sitting around with all this energy waiting to contribute to a project they've never used and just heard about in an HN thread.

I'm sure you get some commitments of people who say they will help. Just like people say they'll pay for your product once you build it and people who say they'll go to an event 6 months from now.

It's hard enough to find contributors among engineers who are using a tool.

replies(8): >>42158222 #>>42158299 #>>42158336 #>>42158661 #>>42158898 #>>42158936 #>>42158953 #>>42161476 #
2. ◴[16 Nov 24 18:43 UTC] No.42158222[source]▶
3. wombatpm ◴[16 Nov 24 18:53 UTC] No.42158299[source]▶
I just took a new role that moves me out of day-to-day coding. I clicked into this thread looking to find a python project that needs help so that I can keep my coding skills sharp.
replies(1): >>42165678 #
4. lytedev ◴[16 Nov 24 18:56 UTC] No.42158336[source]▶
While I don't have any free time to contribute, I do like hearing about cool stuff out there that people care about and I pass the world along! Word of mouth and fun is at least "anything"!
5. neuronet ◴[16 Nov 24 19:41 UTC] No.42158661[source]▶
Will it be a low hit rate? Probably, but I've seen way less serendipitous matchmaking plans than this work out very well. The cost is low for people to just put out a feeler.

Also, it's fun to read over the different projects, so we all win.

6. rty32 ◴[16 Nov 24 20:12 UTC] No.42158898[source]▶
Not 100% agree but would almost say the same thing.

As someone who made small contributions to several projects and left comments under many GitHub issues, things that I see:

* Heavy users are more likely to report bugs and end up contributing to the project * If many people run into the same issue, more likely someone will create among them will write a fix, or at least suggest a workaround * A "healthy" project -- one that addresses GitHub issues and pull requests quickly, that responds to people's questions instead of ignoring them, that encourages technical discussions, is more likely to attract even more contributions. * Some projects have issues and pull requests that are open for a long time without any response from maintainers (despite active development). I myself wouldn't even bother reporting a bug because it's not worth it

Meanwhile, even under this thread, you can find people that expect certain amount of experience with a particular language. That just says to me they don't want contribution. Why? I am no expert in that certain language, but I am experienced enough in software engineering that I can jump into many codebases and create a high quality patch with some ChatGPT. I've done this many times before. If they are so obnoxious I'd rather put my energy elsewhere.

replies(1): >>42163288 #
7. whamlastxmas ◴[16 Nov 24 20:16 UTC] No.42158936[source]▶
I disagree. I’ve been on sabbatical and wanting to not get rusty, so I like the idea of contributing to OSS in a way that feels rewarding and desired
replies(1): >>42165809 #
8. Cheer2171 ◴[16 Nov 24 20:18 UTC] No.42158953[source]▶
What a real contribution to this thread. You'd wager that nobody finds this useful? I wager that nobody finds your comment useful.
replies(1): >>42159989 #
9. rty32 ◴[16 Nov 24 22:33 UTC] No.42159989[source]▶
I find parent's comment very truthful and (mostly) reflects the reality, based on my personal experience. Saying that as someone who created many pull requests and opened/participated in many github issues for open source projects.
replies(1): >>42161596 #
10. hehehheh ◴[17 Nov 24 02:23 UTC] No.42161476[source]▶
Just takes one purse string puller to see something and maybe their company will put money into helping. There is an incentive for companies to contribute. They dont want their tools to die, they want to do the right thing (and can because of culture or BDFL) or promotional reasons either for their service or for recruitment. In addition yes a bored retired xoogler might need a hobby.
11. anonzzzies ◴[17 Nov 24 02:49 UTC] No.42161596{3}[source]▶
sure, but it's not a useful comment. unlike this thread; i did find a project i didn't know about and will contribute to as i was going to make it myself in the new year ( for fun, not profit ).
12. em-bee ◴[17 Nov 24 10:33 UTC] No.42163288[source]▶
you can find people that expect certain amount of experience with a particular language

what then should they be doing different? to contribute code to a software project you need to know or learn the language the project is written in. there is no way around that.

does it bother you that they don't want patches created with chatGPT? did you miss the controversy around that? can you assert that the code you submit is really free of copyright claims?

replies(1): >>42173016 #
13. vednig ◴[17 Nov 24 18:01 UTC] No.42165678[source]▶
If you're interested in a python project, take a look at https://github.com/doshareme/server . Join us on Discord https://dub.sh/doshare-discord
14. hombre_fatal ◴[17 Nov 24 18:20 UTC] No.42165809[source]▶
Well sure, but the question is whether you actually did it, not whether you liked the idea of it.
replies(1): >>42200789 #
15. rty32 ◴[18 Nov 24 15:12 UTC] No.42173016{3}[source]▶
They can do all of that, of course. My point is that their condescending attitude is going to lose potential contributors like me, when most open source projects embrace a much more welcoming environment. Maybe they are doing fine, I don't know. But I have worked on enough open source projects to know that it is not the best position they can be in.
16. whamlastxmas ◴[21 Nov 24 03:22 UTC] No.42200789{3}[source]▶
I made my own OSS project if it counts? lol