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How to Grow Your Open Source Project: 11 Tips and Examples šŸŽÆšŸŽāš”

Anmol Baranwal on September 03, 2024

There are millions of open source projects on GitHub, but only a few ever reach 500 stars and even fewer hit 1,000 stars or more. If you want to g...
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Martin Baun

Nice tips! Good documentation is a very important step as well. If you want a project to get traction, regarding both usage and contribution, you need to have documentation making it easy to setup and use, and to dive into the code to make changes.

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Anmol Baranwal

Yes.. especially if someone is looking for contributors.
The difference between a popular project and a non-popular one might be the docs. After all, it's the first thing any developer checks out so it needs to be very very good.

Most developers won't go through the trouble of contributing if the docs aren't good enough.

Better docs āŸæ better DX.

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Neurabot

This is good article.

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Anmol Baranwal

Thanks for reading :)

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depa panjie purnama

hi, thanks for the great article about open-source.
anyway i've built web that can summarize your open-source contributions,
here's the full article: dev.to/depapp/showcase-your-open-s...

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Anmol Baranwal

Whoa! I love the concept.

Just improve the UI a little bit and add some more filtering options.. it might grab the attention of many devs. I've starred the repo to show support. Thank you for sharing :)

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depa panjie purnama

thank you so much @anmolbaranwal for the feedback & support. really appreciate it

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kerkg profile image
kerkg

Great post, also yeah ı have a project, its called multicellular and its a graphical manuplating framework that lets you manuplate graphical assets (editing videos or images or creating them or making them) also it turns them into nested list so its much more easier to use (also we have a game engine mod that turns mlcl (abbrevation for multicellular) into a game framework) Only problem is that its not done yet (still working on the core services and ı dont have a lot of time to spare) and also some dev problems but dont worry yall ıll finish it (also sorry for my potential spelling mistakes ım on my phone and its hard to type here :)

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Anmol Baranwal

building in public is a great option as well.

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kerkg profile image
kerkg

thanks

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Rob Benzo

Nice work :D

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Anmol Baranwal

Thanks for reading Rob :)

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robbenzo24 profile image
Rob Benzo

:D

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Prakhar Shakya

Feeling Motivated! Should I post my own opensource project here in the comments for some feedback and traction? don't wanna tread on people's personal space

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Anmol Baranwal

Yes, why not.. Take this chance to share it. I'm sure others will love to check it out.

Please just make sure it's open source!

Image description

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Prakhar Shakya

Sure, Thanks to your article I made a post here about my project yesterday.
Would appreciate any feedback.

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Anmol Baranwal

Whoa! I loved the landing page video.

I thought it would be a side project but you already have a $650k investment.. which bothers me why isn't this famous yet?

I've starred the repo and followed up on LinkedIn for support.

It is bound to grow eventually. Thank you for sharing!

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prakhars profile image
Prakhar Shakya

Thank you for your kind words!

We've just now got funds are are planning to make some noise around this. But, as First time founders - Distribution among devs is something we're still learning and experimenting upon.

We've active on Discord as well, if you want to contribute in any manner!

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Adeniji Olajide

It is as if this is for me. I just got motivated to grow one of my open source project: Virtual-Bank.

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Anmol Baranwal

Wow! Thanks for sharing.
The docs are so detailed... it receives more recognition :)

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buzzpy profile image
Buzzpy šŸ’”

Great tips! Saving for the Dev Encyclopedia project! šŸ³

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Anmol Baranwal

It has already crossed 250 stars, so it will only grow exponentially...
It's an awesome project šŸ‘. If anyone's interested, hereā€™s the repo.

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Nevo David

You can also get some information on: gitroom.com

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Anmol Baranwal

Definitely. I'm sure many devs will be following your tips and the blogs at Gitroom.
Thanks for sharing šŸ™Œ

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Bap

great tips! šŸ‘šŸ‘šŸ‘

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Anmol Baranwal

Thanks for reading Bap šŸ’œ

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Bonnie

Well-written article.

Thanks for sharing, Anmol.

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Anmol Baranwal

Thanks for reading Bonnie. Appreciate your support šŸ™Œ

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Pheonix Coder šŸ¦ā€šŸ”„

Nice blog

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Anmol Baranwal

Thanks. I'm happy you loved it šŸ™Œ

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Nathan Buckley • Edited

I'm all for open source and the article does appear to provide some useful information, but the fact that it was written "for Opire" (a for-profit corporation) overshadows what otherwise might be a pure intention to offer unbiased information on "How to Grow Your Open Source Project". It would feel better to me if the relationship between the article author and the company was more clearly outlined and more openly disclosed.

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Anmol Baranwal • Edited

Hi Nathan, I'm Anmol (the article author)...

If you check out my LinkedIn profile or X tweet history, you'll find all the relevant info you need.

There are plenty of articles that focus solely on promotions without offering any real value. I put in a lot of hard work to create content thatā€™s genuinely useful. Just because I added a section about a startup that could help others.. doesnā€™t mean the entire purpose of creating value was lost.

I love open source and have created a ton of content around it, one of my articles even got featured in the official GitHub community. Opire is doing noble work in open source and Iā€™m helping others learn about it. Most of them would be eager to check it out.

I don't want to sound rude.. but just saying.

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mindfury profile image
Nathan Buckley

Hi Anmol,

I hear that you put a lot of effort into open source and creating content that's helpful for others. I can imagine it must be frustrating when it seems someone is devaluing your work.

Communication is complex. It was not my intention to denigrate your work -- I simply wanted to point out that there is a conflict of interest with offering information about a product without disclosing your relationship to that product. Based on how many references you insert in your post about Opire, it seems pretty clear that your intention is to attract people to your service. It's okay to want that, but when you are not forthcoming about your motives, trust with your readers is eroded. In contrast, when you are forthcoming, trust is fortified. That's essentially what I was trying to convey (though I left it to other readers to draw their own conclusions, hence the "take that information as you will" part).

RE: "Just because I added a section about a startup that could help others.. doesnā€™t mean the entire purpose of creating value was lost."
I never said your article was useless or of no value. In fact, I mentioned twice that your article contains useful information, and perhaps part of your motive for writing it was truly from a spirit of generosity and goodwill. I can grant you that. However, it seems clear that there is some underlying motive to bring users to Opire, and I invite you to own that.

I feel sad reading what you wrote in your TLDR;. It seems to confirm that my comment triggered you which ultimately caused you to lash out with a personal attack. I invite you to own that as well, so that you might grow from it. Perhaps my statement that your article is effectively an ad was a bit harsh -- I still personally believe it's true based on your writing but I'll remove it anyways as I suspect it was the flash point for our breakdown in communication and it doesn't reflect the kind of person I aspire to be.

I hold no ill will towards you Anmol. I accept you for who you are, wherever you are at in your life journey. I don't expect you to be perfect and I know for sure I am not either. I'm sorry my comment struck a nerve -- it was not my intention. I will surely be more careful in my comments in the future.

All the best šŸ™‚

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nabby27 profile image
Ivan Cordoba

Hi Nathan,

I'm Ivan, one of the co-founders of Opire.

I want to start by saying I'm very sorry about the misunderstanding. I completely understand how this situation could have been interpreted. Yes, we paid Anmol to write the post and never intended to hide it - we even mentioned it in a LinkedIn post. The main purpose of the post (on Opire's part) was to spread the word about Opire, regardless of whether people choose to use the platform or not. We are a very small team (just two people) and our only wish is for people to get to know us and see if what we offer can be of help to them. As you can imagine, attracting users and building trust is not an easy task.

However, I really understand why you say that. It would have been much clearer if we had been more explicit in the post, especially for those who don't follow us closely. I honestly didn't realize that it might not seem that way, thinking that the sponsorship would be clear since the post was under Opire's organization. Your feedback is very valuable and we will definitely work on being more transparent in the future.

On a side note, I want to address Anmol's comment. I agree that it was inappropriate and does not fit the community we are trying to build. We are committed to fostering a positive environment and I apologize for any offense it caused. I can assure you that we will make sure this does not happen again. In the end, I believe this was just a misunderstanding with no ill intent from either party.

I would love for you to continue following our journey and get to know us better. My social networks are always open if you want to chat or have further feedback.

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anmolbaranwal profile image
Anmol Baranwal

Hi Nathan,

I would like to publicly apologize if my response came across as rude in any way.

I have deep respect for people in the industry and the TLDR in your comment felt more offensive to me than I initially realized.

Moving forward, Iā€™ll be more transparent and explicitly mention things as Ivan said.

Thank you for your understanding.

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mindfury profile image
Nathan Buckley

Ivan & Anmol,

Thanks for your honesty and understanding. šŸ™‚ Though things between us may have started off rocky, my respect for you and your team has only grown. Our interaction serves as a great example of how conflictā€”when viewed appropriatelyā€”can be an effective tool for building understanding and bringing people together. If I ever require services of the kind you offer, I will surely head your way. šŸ‘

Warmly,
Nathan

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Matt

Nice post, thanks!

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Anmol Baranwal

Thanks for reading Matt :)

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Anmol Baranwal

I need serious feedback guys.
Let me know if you loved the moral at the end of each example.

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kamal

very well written article! Good Job

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Anmol Baranwal

Thanks for reading Kamal šŸ™Œ