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For those who think that #OpenSource is primarily about technical quality, may I recommend Uncurled by @bagder? After decades maintaining curl + other projects, his advice keeps circling back to pragmatic tips about working with people.

mastodon.social/@bagder/111144…

Turns out the most important skills in the long run are to stay motivated, encourage contributors, + support users. Compared to that, taking care of the code is much more straightforward.

When speaking of your project, even when you are the only single person who contributes to it for the moment, try to instead refer to it as our project. The project is a communal, joint effort and we are a team that makes it. Sure, that team is sometimes or even often just the single you, but by being inclusive in your language you make it clear and obvious that everyone is invited to be a part of the project.
The project is "we" not "I" nor "you". How you communicate in and about Open Source projects is important and will greatly affect how you and your work is perceived. Clear communication is important because you are working with humans, and in many cases people who do not have English as their primary language.
When contributing to a project, avoid speaking of doing things to your project or use phrases like "you might want to do this" etc. As a contributor to a project, you are lining up to become a member of that community and therefore you are part of it. You do not send improvements to them, so send them to us. We might want to do this in our project. You will find that the receiving end of your help also appreciates that you are part of the solution, not just an outsider throwing in things.

daniel:// stenberg://

2023-09-28 21:13:00


Uncurled – everything I know and learned about running and maintaining Open Source projects for three decades.

I hope you did not miss this work of mine, as I'm quite happy with it.

un.curl.dev/


README - Uncurled

un.curl.dev

#opensource @daniel:// stenberg://
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