Some years ago, when I heard people contributing to an open source project, I was always afraid 😥. I thought one had to know a whole stack perfectly before contributing. Little did I know that was a fallacy.
A common misconception about contributing to open source is that you need to contribute code. 👻
There are lots of projects you can contribute to on Github without knowing anything about code. Let's be aware that it is not only Software Developers that contribute to open source projects. My first contribution to a project was fixing a typological error in the README file of a project. I was so happy when it was merged.
Open source improves your existing skills, help you meet lots of people, teach people, review codes and mentor beginners.
Steps to start contributing to Open Source
These steps have worked for me severely and I know it will help you make your first contribution if you don't have any. To contribute, you have to look through issues of different projects on Github, there are lots of open source projects you can contribute to, Javascript libraries, Gatsby, Npm Packages, Ruby Gems and some others.
Click on the issues, then click on the labels and filter by beginner friendly or good first issue, you will see lots of bugs that are easy to get you started and raise a Pull request in a few minutes.
You can also search for typos in the README file and raise a PR to correct it, doing this will make you contribute to the project and you might even be added as a contributor to the project and grow your profile. Since I made my first contributions, I'm no longer afraid to contribute to a different project or solve issues on Github.
After seeing an issue or problem to tackle, fork the project on Github and create a new branch to solve the issue, after that raise a pull request. Hurray🎉🎉, You have made your first contribution.
I will be a bit bias here as I am a Ruby on Rails Developer. If you are a Rails developer and want to contribute to open source, check out this website to see the trending Rails Open source project. There is one network I'll like you to consider joining, that is Agile Ventures. In Agile Ventures, you contribute to lots of projects ranging from Rails to popular Javascript framework like Vue and React.
Agile Ventures make you feel at home, you see lots of newbies, have lots of pairing session to unblock you and collaborate with developers from all over the world.
Don't be afraid to contribute to open source projects, fixing a typo or adding one line of code. Everything counts 💪🏻.
Thanks for reading. 👻
I am Danielshow.
Top comments (1)
This literally put in to plain words why and how I have always overcomplicated the process and in so doing prevented myself from contributing to anything so far. Thanks for this!