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Pablo Rivera
Pablo Rivera

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10 things I do to keep open source projects healthy and stress free.

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amueller profile image
Andreas Mueller

While I don't disagree with any of you points, I think this misses some points of typical open source projects. Your goals are quite narrow - which is a great way to keep yourself sane. But there are many projects out there with a lot bigger scope, and where the goal is to not only satisfy your own needs, but also other's needs. If django had similar policies as you do, it probably would be way less useful to you.

I'm not saying that your scope is any less valid, I'm saying your advice doesn't apply to the projects in which people typically experience birnout. Or maybe, your advice could be framed as saying the best way to avoid burnout is to not work on a community project. Which is true, but doesn't really solve the fundamental problems of the open source community.

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yelluw profile image
Pablo Rivera

Or maybe, your advice could be framed as saying the best way to avoid burnout is to not work on a community project.

I fail to understand how anyone could think this is the theme of the post. Maybe I'm missing something. Care to expand?

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Jason C. McDonald

Excellent points! While the exact boundaries vary from one project to another, setting boundaries is important. Phabricator is one major open source project I'm familiar with which exemplifies this for a large, multi-user, production-quality project.

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yelluw profile image
Pablo Rivera

Thanks, Jason. You are right that boundaries are important. I failed to make that stand out in the post and am planning to write about it soon.