Ask HN: What's the best way to find and collaborate in open source projects?

#1

Post by bartcobain » Wed, Oct 30, 2019, 6:48 PM UTC

I have always wanted to collaborate on an open source project but I haven't found an interesting project while searching in github. Is there another way to find open source projects to collaborate other than searching for it inside the source control sites like gitlab or github?

Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to find and collaborate in open source projects?

#2

Post by non-entity » Wed, Oct 30, 2019, 6:58 PM UTC

Personally, I was never able to just pick something and contribute to it. The few times I have contributed to an OSS project have been when I've been working on something and uncover a problem that I think I can fix.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to find and collaborate in open source projects?

#3

Post by hos234 » Wed, Oct 30, 2019, 8:03 PM UTC

https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/organizations/

Use the list to get a sense of whats out there. Then track a couple devs doing things you like. Fix/file simple bugs, improve their docs, scripts etc on their repos. That usually opens doors. Preferably target people who communicate well, respond fast, and are constantly improving things. Disciplined people usually are the best to work with.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to find and collaborate in open source projects?

#4

Post by sgillen » Wed, Oct 30, 2019, 9:49 PM UTC

Yeah I agree with non-entity. I recommend maybe finding some projects you're interested in USING, creating a new project, and then hopefully contribute any bugfixes you can manage to find. I find just opening up a good bug report is a good place to start and feel out the developer community and culture around a project.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to find and collaborate in open source projects?

#5

Post by bartcobain » Wed, Oct 30, 2019, 10:39 PM UTC

hos234 wrote: post #3

https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/organizations/ Use the list to get a sense of whats out there. Then track a couple devs doing things you like. Fix/file simple bugs, improve their docs, scripts etc on their repos. That usually opens doors. Preferably target people who communicate well, respond fast, and are constantly improving things. Disciplined people usually are the best to work with.

This is the kind of site that what is was looking for. Thank you.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to find and collaborate in open source projects?

#6

Post by Jefro118 » Thu, Oct 31, 2019, 1:27 PM UTC

I made a site for this: https://sourcesort.com/contribute

Beyond things like language and topic, you can also filter for things like how long maintainers take to respond to pull requests or how likely your PRs are to be accepted.