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Discussion on: Why you should think twice about contributing to Open Source

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bmcclure profile image
Ben McClure

The way the title is written, I actually thought this was going to be a negative article about open source contribution.

I'm used to "think twice" being used in a negative sense to convince someone to rethink something they may have wanted to do and realize why they shouldn't.

I'm glad I was mistaken!

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adityamenon profile image
Aditya M

Here I was, grabbing my popcorn, ready to read about some GitHub Drama... I know the content is worthwhile to read but doesn't justify a clickbait headline. Last place I want to get Growth-Hacked is in technical communities :/

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kallaste profile image
Tatiana McGarry

You are certainly not mistaken about the meaning of the term. I commented on the same thing. I think the author is simply not a native English speaker.

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pgblu profile image
Philipp Blume

Yes. Definitely a helpful article, worth re-reading. Very misleading title.

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_ezell_ profile image
Ezell Frazier

Exactly. I was wondering when the article was going to begin. Seems like it starts here in the comments. Not a bad write-up though. Great advice all around.

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jimlynchcodes2 profile image
Jim Lynch

Same. Very click-baity title, but actually a nice article. :)

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rhamedy profile image
Rafiullah Hamedy

I couldn't agree more, I published the article first as "Why you should think twice about not contributing to Open Source" with a "not" and after I run it by a few people they didn't like the double negative and it was confusing.

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explodingwalrus profile image
Carl Draper

Maybe you should rephrase it completely? It's misleading

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rhamedy profile image
Rafiullah Hamedy

I spent around 10-20 minutes picking a title for this article. Here are some of the other titles that I had in mind

  • How I started to contribute to open source
  • What you need to know to get started with open source contribution
  • How you should not ignore open source contribution
  • Why you should consider contributing to open source
  • A huge % of developers are contributing to open source, so should you
  • 7 out of 10 developer contributes to open source, and why you should too
  • 7 out of 10 developers contribute to open source and here is a guide how you could do it too
  • Open Source Contribution 101 - Why you should think twice about not contributing to open source
  • Why you should think twice about not contributing to open source

In comparison to the title, I spent days in preparing the content of the article and my intention has been to

  • promote open source contribution
  • show open source is a thing and should not be ignored
  • share some motivations, tips and suggestions
  • share my personal open source contribution as example

As I mentioned above, the title might be confusing but, it really comes down to every individual's interpretation. The main purpose of this article and it's content remains the same and that is solely to promote the culture of open source contribution.

Thank you for sharing your concern about the article's title. I hope that you enjoyed reading the content of the article and if you have any suggestions, feedback and concerns I would be happy to listen.

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ebenoladutemu profile image
Ebenezer Oladutemu

I think the title is perfect!
Like someone earlier said, click-bait in a friendly way!😁

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vhoyer profile image
Vinícius Hoyer

yeah, after reading I kinda got the "don't want to contribute to open source? think again" meaning, and it was nice 😅

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metalmikester profile image
Michel Renaud

I was going to say it really gives the wrong impression, but I might not have clicked on it if not for the intriguing title. Let's call it "clickbait" in a friendly way. :)