How to maintain an Open Source project (2023)
3 days ago
- #community-building
- #project-maintenance
- #open-source
- Open source projects rely on energy, not time or money, making maintainer burnout and community collapse key threats.
- Key strategies include recruiting new maintainers, prioritizing existing maintainers' energy, and being kind to users.
- Being kind to users involves clear communication, avoiding unnecessary breaking changes, and facilitating bug reports.
- Balancing priorities is crucial, as recruiting maintainers, adding features, and maintaining simplicity can conflict.
- Automation (CI, releases, documentation) and frequent project updates on social media can help sustain the project.
- Documenting development processes and taking vacations are important for long-term project health.
- Setting a positive project culture involves knowing when to say no to features and valuing constructive criticism.
- Avoiding burnout is essential; maintainers should set boundaries and remember they're not bound by SLAs.
- Recruiting maintainers proactively and trusting active contributors with merge privileges can foster project growth.
- Projects can become self-sustaining with a few committed maintainers and users, allowing founders to step back.