What we'll cover

• Some things open source has helped me with

• Some things contributing has taught me

• Things to do while contributing

• Things to avoid while contributing

• A few resources

Some things open source has helped me with

• Teaching me that you don't need to be an amazing programmer to contribute to major projects
• Reading code
  • Sometimes there is no other way to get the context
  • Many times you have to jump into other repos
  • Really... this is no different than work
• Reviewing code
  • This code needs to be maintained
  • 100% remote and mostly with strangers

Some things contributing has taught me

• Not all code gets merged, and that's ok
• Some of the most important contributions aren't code
• Some people are just assholes. Don't be an asshole, and if you can avoid assholes, avoid them. If you're a maintainer, don't put up with assholes.
• If you don't enjoy working on something in your free time, don't.
• Your priorities and them maintainers may be different

Things to do while contributing

• Ask questions and clarify before implementing
• Over communicate in your commits (not just in your pr descriptions)
• Go back and amend commits
• Look before asking

Things to avoid while contributing

• "Why don't you just..." *
• Giant PRs
• Don't implement a new feature without getting the OK from maintainers

Some resources

• Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software by Nadia Eghbal
• un.curl.dev - Danel Stenberg
• The Hard Parts of Open Source by Evan Czaplicki

Now, go contribute