I published my first open-source Rust project. I got 1 toxic comment, but also 3 PRs in 24 hours.

Daniil Verba — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 08:45:33 +0000

Hey everyone,

I recently gathered the courage to share my first Rust project: undertow-protocol (a lightweight P2P library focused on Relay servers). I was genuinely terrified to publish it.

I expected maybe a dozen views. Instead, I got 1,000+ in the first hour and was completely shocked. My post was instantly removed by Reddit's spam filters, and the comments I did see were mostly negative, attacking me for using AI. (Yes, I use it — but strictly for learning and translating, as English is not my native language).

But then, 24 hours later, something amazing happened: I received 3 forks and Pull Requests. To say I was surprised is an understatement. This just proves the power of having a well-structured Git repository and clearly detailed Issues.

The takeaway? If you are hesitating to share your projects just like I was, my advice is this: focus on writing good documentation (even if you use AI to translate it) and don't stress over dumb algorithms or toxic comments. The right people will notice your effort.

If you're curious about the project, here is the link: GitHub Repo

DEV Community: Daniil Verba

I published my first open-source Rust project. I got 1 toxic comment, but also 3 PRs in 24 hours.