
Ask HN: What are some ways to support open source projects besides writing code? - cagrimmett
I wish more open source projects had a way to support them besides for working on the code base. I usually don&#x27;t know the languages they use or don&#x27;t want to invest the time to learn their framework. I&#x27;ll gladly give the project $20, though.<p>What are some ways to support open source projects besides writing code?
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Belar
Pretty much always you can "give them a $20", every medium+ sized project has
some kind of support program going or accepts donations.

However, if they don't or someone doesn't have a $20 to throw at open source,
there are a lot of ways to help. Just to mention a few (assuming you are at
least an active user):

\- help less experienced users (answer community questions, reported issues
etc.),

\- improve documentation (documentation is never finished),

\- share your knowledge about a tool (write an article, tutorial),

\- take part in tests and report bugs,

\- apply your skills (design, writing, community management etc.) to aid
project's needs,

\- create (and maintain) a useful "resource" (e.g. list of example projects,
plugin reviews).

There are many ways that often go "unnoticed" or rather... no one may
officially pat you on the back for it, but it helps.

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cottonseed
Documentation! See this recent thread for example:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13437252](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13437252)

Or generally anything that helps user experience: documentation, improving web
site/documentation design, testing, finding bugs and making high quality bug
reports, evangelizing the project to users who need it but aren't aware,
becoming a expert user of the project (which will almost certainly lead to bug
reports, suggestions for improvements to features and documentation, etc.) and
triaging tickets, answering questions in the support forum, etc.

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johnnycarcin
I don't have a lot if time to provide anything to most of the open source
tools I use so I've setup monthly donations to them that my company matches.
Some of the developers have wish lists as well that you can get them stuff
from.

[https://esheavyindustries.com/2016/02/have-some-extra-
cash-h...](https://esheavyindustries.com/2016/02/have-some-extra-cash-help-
make-your-life-easier/)

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Mz
[http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/p/my-
sandbox.html](http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/p/my-sandbox.html)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12880792](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12880792)

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nnn1234
Totally support www.opencollective.com, those guys are awesome. Documentation
always helps There needs to be a piecemeal way of supporting such projects,
take a look at hit record.org for creative stuff and also I am part of a team
thats building a platform to do exactly what you request. Launching Feb 8th.
Check out www.crowdraising.co

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tmaly
I have been giving Mozilla foundation $20 each year. I use firefox daily and I
am interested to see how Rust develops.

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jetti
Write documentation. Good documentation is hard to find for a lot of open
source software.

~~~
accraze
Seconding this, docs are some of the best way to get involved. Alot of open
source docs are very bare bones and maintainers are usually more than happy to
get a docs PR.

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rwieruch
[https://opencollective.com/](https://opencollective.com/)

