

Ask HN: Which open source needs contributors badly? I am a beginner - sanspace


======
eb0la
All opensource projects need good documentation. That's not a small task ;-)
but it's needed to get adoption.

Pick something interesting but hard to start/learn/understand and WRITE. This
will sharpen your communication skills, which is crucial when explaining stuff
to non-technical people (like your manager).

The installer / upgrade part of any project is also equally important; but
it's better covered because it's part of the build process (the only
exceptions is that you're selling enterprise software to a multi-million $$$
company: in that case your software must be as hard to install as posible in
order to justify selling professional services).

------
hoggle
If you don't have a GitHub account yet then get one and find projects that
interest you ("explore").

This tool here helps you to stay on course by sending you emails regularly:

<http://www.codetriage.com>

~~~
mgallivan
I tried to sign up (because it's a fantastic idea) but I got:

"We're sorry, but something went wrong."

when I tried to authorize the application in GitHub. If this is your project
I'd love to try it out if there's another way for me to sign up (or another
date I can try).

------
runarb
Portable-VirtualBox needs more developers: [http://www.vbox.me/blog/portable-
virtualbox-needs-a-new-main...](http://www.vbox.me/blog/portable-virtualbox-
needs-a-new-main-developer/)

HN post: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5219170>

------
lutusp
> ... Which opensource needs contributors badly?

All of them. You might be better off choosing an open-source project based on
your interests and background rather than looking for a project that's
particularly desperate.

~~~
sanspace
Thought of doing both. What would you suggest? Any favorites?

~~~
gopalv
Well, then go on - list your interests (or skills).

And please don't pick a project that's desperate for people - It's a classic
case of the mythical man month.

Most of the time the core folks will find bringing up a new member up-to speed
as a distraction, particularly when there's no commitment from either side to
keep working on it (compared something like google summer of code).

PS: if all else fails, pick up a new programming language & write
examples/cookbook-recipes for it

------
cjbprime
<http://openhatch.org/>

------
Gilly_LDN
<http://projects.apache.org/indexes/category.html>

Take a look here.

------
Jeremy1026
What language(s) would you want to work with?

~~~
sanspace
I am a C developer and I work personally on PHP and have written some utility
scripts using python. I don't stick to a language. I am a quick learner and I
am flexible.

I would like to start with a small tasks / modules as of now until I get a
hold on things.

~~~
tnorthcutt
WordPress is run by ~17% of the web and is quite welcoming to people new to
the community. These two links may be helpful:

[http://wp.tutsplus.com/articles/general/learning-how-to-
cont...](http://wp.tutsplus.com/articles/general/learning-how-to-contribute-
to-wordpress-getting-started/)

<http://codex.wordpress.org/Contributing_to_WordPress>

