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Why Most Small GitHub Projects Never Get Contributors

Georgi Hristov on May 16, 2026

Most contributors leave before they even read your code. A lot of developers think contributors come after writing good code. Usually...
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rinat kozin

Building in public for a few weeks now — this hits hard. The "1 commit, 0 stars" problem is real even when the code is solid. What's worked for me is just showing actual production usage — real numbers, real code. Still figuring out the rest.

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Georgi Hristov

Yeah, I’m starting to realize that too.
Still learning the “build in public” side of open source myself.

Drop the repo link, I’d love to check it out.

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rinat kozin

Here: github.com/redbase-app/redb-route — that's the pipeline engine itself. The production code snippet in the article ("What a real production route looks like") is from a live logistics system running on it.

more github.com/redbase-app/

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Georgi Hristov

That’s actually impressive.
Showing real production usage instead of fake demo examples instantly makes the project feel more serious and trustworthy.

I took a look at the repo too — the architecture and pipeline approach look great. Good job.

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Dipesh Ray

How does my Readme look like? github.com/dipeshrayg/autonomous-b...
I feel I did a simple readme. Tried to use github's internal resource to create an machine which creates more machines and self improves with each projects it creates. There are multiple issues with the production itself, but it has improved itself alot since it was first created. and Yes no any stars or views.

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Georgi Hristov

Honestly, the project idea sounds really interesting.
And yeah, the no stars/no views phase is probably something most open source developers go through in the beginning.
The important part is that you keep improving it.