Credits: Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash
Introduction
When you build an open source project, you’re building something for the community. But what does that mean? How do you create a community around an open source project? What makes a great open-source community? In this post, we’ll explore these questions and more.
Make it easy for everyone to understand how to use your project.
The best way to get people involved is by making it easy for everyone to understand how to use your project. This can be done in a number of ways:
- A clear description of the purpose and motivation behind your project. If you don’t explain what you’re doing and why, then no one will want to help build on top of it.
- A getting started guide explaining how quickly new developers can learn enough about the system so that they can get started contributing code or documentation or testing features.
- Listing out common use cases so that when someone asks “What am I supposed to do with this?”, there are already examples available — and even if those examples aren’t exactly what you had in mind, there may still be something useful for them based on their knowledge level!
Make it easy for everyone to contribute to your project.
One of the most important things to keep in mind is that everyone should be able to contribute. This requires making it easy for people to understand what they need to do and where they need to go.
It’s also important for contributors not only feel confident about their contributions, but also that whatever contribution process you have in place is clear and easy for everyone involved.
Build personal relationships.
To build a vibrant open-source community, it’s important to have personal relationships with contributors. You can do this by:
- Giving credit where it is due. If you’ve used the code in your project and made an improvement to it, let the original author know that you appreciate their work and share what changes you’ve made so they can use them too!
- Being aware of contributors’ time constraints. Some people are very busy with other projects or jobs — if this is something that’s going on in your team as well, make sure everyone knows how much time they need for each task before starting any big new feature or project (or at least give people enough warning). This will help keep everybody motivated and focused on what needs doing at any given time!
- Being aware of contributors’ personal lives outside work hours too; sometimes working late into nights has been known to happen without anyone realizing until months later when someone finally goes “Hey guys did we all complete our tasks?”
Curate and thank users and contributors, as your community grows.
It’s important to thank people in public and private. You should also be sure to use a personalized message when thanking contributors, since they’ll know they’re being thanked by name (and not just “thank you”). And if you want to give an example of how much your community means to you, consider sending out a personal note thanking all of the people who have helped build it up over the years.
When it comes down to it, this is one of those things where we think it’s best done organically: just keep track of how many times people contribute or retweet something cool enough that it deserves some sort of acknowledgment from on high (or however else feels right).
Make people feel included.
It’s important to make it clear to everyone that your community is a safe place for everyone, and that you have a code of conduct. This can be as simple as posting a link to your code of conduct on your website or providing it in an email newsletter.
There are many ways you can enforce the code of conduct: You could create an online forum where people can post questions or concerns about your project; you could require members who violate it to leave the group; or even ban violators from participating in any way (e.g., no more comments).
Create a code of conduct, and be vigilant about enforcing it.
A code of conduct is a set of rules for how people should behave in your community. While these rules may be simple and easy to follow, they can also be very strict. They should be enforced by the community itself, not by a single person or group.
A good code of conduct will include:
- A statement about what you expect from other members (e.g., don’t harass others).
- Guidelines on how you want others to behave (e.g., don’t spam).
Building a community around an open source project is hard work, and can require a lot of effort (but is ultimately rewarding).
Building a community around an open source project is hard work, and can require a lot of effort (but is ultimately rewarding).
- Finding time. You need to dedicate some time each day to building your community. This may be difficult for some people who are busy with other things in life, or have too much on their plate already. For others, this might mean taking time away from work or family obligations during evenings or weekends when you could otherwise be doing something else fun!
- Finding motivation: It’s not always easy finding enough motivation to keep going with this type of project; it requires dedication over long periods of time (and sometimes even decades). If you don’t feel like there’s enough value in what you’re doing right now then maybe think about how much better off everyone will be once its done — this could give extra incentive! And if someone else works on something similar but doesn’t share any data back then perhaps they’ll share some insights into how things went wrong(?) Or maybe just get together once every few months so everyone knows whats going on?
A great open-source community takes the project to the next level, and helps many people!
A great open-source community takes the project to the next level, and helps many people!
Open source projects are built by communities of developers who want to contribute their knowledge and time in order to make something better. If you want your project to become successful, it’s important that you create an inclusive environment where everyone can get involved. This means having a code of conduct (or similar policies), clear explanations of how the project works, and making sure everyone has access — not just those who have technical skills but also non-technical contributors who might benefit from being able to help out with some tasks or provide feedback on features they would like added into future versions of your software program or app store listing.
Conclusion
Building a vibrant open-source community is hard, but it’s worth the effort. If you can make your project welcoming, inclusive and welcoming to new users, they will feel more connected to the project and its goals. You can help make this happen by building relationships with people who are interested in your project or who are looking for ways to contribute — and by fostering an environment where everyone feels welcome as part of a larger community.
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