How to Respectfully Contribute to Open Source

Below are some practices we have found essential in order to respectfully contribute to Open Source....

Below are some practices we have found essential in order to respectfully contribute to Open Source.

• Read CONTRIBUTING.md & CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md: Projects usually have guidelines for how to best contribute, and how to engage with the community. Let's respect them!
• Read and follow the project's LLM guidelines: Some projects allow LLM usage for contributions, others don't, and some require disclosure. Our own recommendation? Make sure you understand all of the code you're submitting.
• Make meaningful changes: Prioritise changes with real-world impact. Squishing bugs should help folks, not be a box-ticking exercise.
• Quality over quantity: Maintainers will appreciate fewer high-quality well-researched PRs more than a flurry of small changes.
• Research before coding: Before writing code, consider whether a change makes sense given the project's direction, and check whether the idea has already been discussed on the issue tracker. Sometimes it's best to open an issue to discuss your proposal before sending a PR.
• Prioritise projects you use: You'll do your best work on projects you care about, and that you're already familiar with.
• There's no rush to merge: Maintainers may take a while to review and merge your contribution, and it might require additional discussion. But there's no rush — your hard work is already valued while it's under review.

OSS projects are most often maintained by unpaid volunteers, so let's be mindful of their workload, and not add to the all-too-common problem of maintainer burnout.

<small>(Written at the <a href="https://stewardshiplab.org/">Software Stewardship Lab</a>. Thanks to: Miranda Heath, Dawn Foster.)</small>