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3 reasons why devs don’t contribute to open source. Discuss!

Fabio Zammit on November 23, 2018

Overview I came across this survey from Digital Ocean that takes a deep dive into understanding what devs think about contributing to op...
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nabbisen profile image
nabbisen • Edited

Hi, Fabio.

I have called for several friends of mine to contribution to some open source projects recently.

doubting they have the right skills

As long as I have experienced, this seems almost true.
They said they were not confident in their skills about not only technology but also English.
Futhermore, one of them said he felt shy because he was unsure to continue contribution.

And I'm in the way to cheer them up, saying, "Nobody may care. Some help will be. Shall we take small steps?"

Companies not giving their employees time to contribute

Sadly, I understand this situation... 😅

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niorad profile image
Antonio Radovcic

If one is doubting they have the right skills, they're probably right.

  • If I take a bug/ticket/etc. and spend some hours on it, how do I know if somebody else isn't already working on it, and my time was spent for nothing?
  • I prefer working on software used by end-users, and not by other developers. The latter is much more prominent in OSS, IME.
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akshayiyer12 profile image
Akshay Iyer • Edited

I would say that maybe when you are working for a whole week Mon-Fri or sometimes maybe Sat, it's important to go to diffuse mode on Sundays so that you can get to focused mode for the upcoming week.
Also getting lazier after work and switching to netflix or amazon prime videos or youtube for a movie or tv series instead of contributing.
For me these were the reason of not contributing to open source even though I had contributed earlier.

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Fabio Zammit

Thank you everyone for the comments :)

Very interesting to see it from your perspective.

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Ronaldo Peres

I never thought of contributing until now.

I do not know where to start.

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Fabio Zammit

Have a look here github.com/freeCodeCamp/how-to-con... this might help :)