2 days ago
- Energy, not time or money, is the limiting factor in open source; focus on preventing maintainer burnout and community collapse.
- Recruit new maintainers frequently, prioritize existing maintainers' energy, and be kind to users—but not by doing everything they ask.
- Automate boring tasks like CI, releases, and documentation to save energy.
- Post about the project on social media or start a dedicated platform to attract users and contributors.
- Document development processes to help new maintainers and your future self.
- Take regular vacations and communicate your absence to users and maintainers.
- Develop a taste for when to say no to features as the project matures.
- Find people excited about the project, invite constructive criticism, and balance it with positive feedback.
- Avoid burnout by not overworking; you have no SLA to your users.
- Proactively recruit maintainers by trusting active contributors with merge privileges early.