

The Art of Contributing - vanstee
http://blog.assemblymade.com/the-art-of-contributing

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zackmorris
I've often thought that contributing to open source projects is too labor-
intensive. Installing the version control system, configuring your environment
to run the code, learning the code, updating the code, submitting the patch
and then asking the maintainer(s) to merge the change all present barriers to
entry.

What I would prefer is something akin to development currency, that would
lower the bar and flatten the learning curve. I think that users want to be
able to:

* Suggest a change

* Point to the problem code, if desired

* Suggest a fix, if desired

* Contribute in some way (perhaps monetarily) that helps the change occur, if desired

I wish that github had a bounty system like the one in Stack Overflow:

[http://www.quora.com/GitHub/Why-doesnt-Github-add-a-
bounty-f...](http://www.quora.com/GitHub/Why-doesnt-Github-add-a-bounty-
feature-so-that-people-could-conveniently-pay-for-issues-to-get-fixed)

If a system like this existed, I could easily see developers earning income on
the side by improving code. It could incorporate something like Flattr so that
developers could join a guild for some amount of money per month and vote for
enhancements with their dollars/bitcoins. It would be nice to withdraw karma
as currency also.

~~~
bitsweet
Like this
[https://assemblymade.com/helpful/wips](https://assemblymade.com/helpful/wips)
? :p

~~~
zackmorris
Hah that's awesome! The egg on my face is worth knowing it exists.

------
just3ws
The point made about "bias towards merging" is my favorite. It's hard enough
to get people to contribute without compounding the problem by kicking back
their work over minutiae.

