Chapter 20
Ten Tips for Being an Effective Community Member
IN THIS CHAPTER
Discovering how to be a participant that OSS maintainers value
Fostering a community that brings the best out of contributors
Encouraging an overall community of respect and collaboration that is welcoming
As of June 2022, more than 83 million people are on GitHub. That’s a lot of people. It can be difficult to stand out among such a large sea of people. But the truth is, most people starting out on GitHub don’t really understand how to be effective. They don’t understand the rules of the road to being a great member of the community.
In this chapter, I compile ten tips that will help you be a wonderful community member — the type of person that every maintainer is excited to have involved with their repositories.
Be Respectful and Kind
Maintaining a repository can be a frustrating affair — especially when it’s a popular repository and you’re volunteering your free time to an open source project and you’re about to answer the same question for the hundredth time. It’s understandable that you may be very curt to the next person who asks the same question. It’s a waste of your time, and they didn’t do their ...
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