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Discussion on: How to be an awesome open source maintainer?

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Ben Halpern

I have bookmarked this to get the answers myself!!

One thought: It’s a marathon not a sprint. If things are a slog or overly hectic now, don’t be discouraged, imagine how great this project will be if you stick to it for ten years!

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Ali Spittel

I love that philosophy -- really smart to be future focused.

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Ben Halpern

Yeah, but also self-forgiving in this way. I find it's easy to see all the things you wish you were better at as a maintainer and getting down on yourself, but I think it's natural to have weak spots, but you can fix them over time.

Taking all the suggestions in this thread and elsewhere, you can gradually improve your process, your ability to provide guidance, triage issues, maintain your sanity, know the project's true purpose, etc. But it takes time, and the important part is to just make the gradual improvements.

PS just created an issue, would love to help out with LCFU via brainstorm sometime too. 🙂

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Aaron Schlesinger

I 10000% agree on being self-forgiving. Recently I've just been straight up honest with people saying I don't know (using the below meme a lot) and people almost always understand.

I have no idea what I'm doing

I forget this all the time but I feel better when I remember thatwe all want to help each other, and it's ok to be vulnerable, even as a maintainer. That always helps me forgive myself and get on with life :)