I had a patchy history contributing to larger projects. I later figured they don't really want small random contributions because we are a drain on maintainers time. It's more productive for them to work on larger contributions or major issues. My bug fix PR for Terraform was sitting in the queue for weeks even if it was just one line of code. No blame. They have their priorities too.
Smaller, upcoming projects may be more welcoming.
Starting with docs is a good entry point. It's low risk for the project, you get time to learn and establish yourself.
Being unwelcoming to new contributors was one of the top issues in GitHub 2017 survey, so it's not just you.
Don't be afraid. Ask what a good first time issue can be and do your utmost best.
I had a patchy history contributing to larger projects. I later figured they don't really want small random contributions because we are a drain on maintainers time. It's more productive for them to work on larger contributions or major issues. My bug fix PR for Terraform was sitting in the queue for weeks even if it was just one line of code. No blame. They have their priorities too.
Don't be afraid. Ask what a good first time issue can be and do your utmost best.
Absolutely agree. I'll see if I can find my way around some nice issues in the repo.
Thanks for the advice, Max!