2025-12-31

Reviewing open source trends in 2025

How well did I capture trends in open source for 2025? The vibe was right, even if some of the specifics were wrong.

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2025-12-24

How quickly should you fix vulnerabilities?

It’s okay to say “pay me if you want fast fixes”, but communicate that policy ahead of time so people can make informed decisions.

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2025-12-17

Invalid bug reports are sometimes documentation bugs

Invalid bug reports often represent real bugs, it’s just that they’re documentation bugs instead of software bugs.

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2025-12-10

The do’s and don’ts of measuring contributions “outside of working hours”

Do: not. Don’t: correct. The clock time of contributions tells you very little, and almost certainly not what you’re trying to learn.

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2025-11-25

Pragmatic Bookshelf half-off sale!

Use promo code save50 at pragprog.com through December 1 to save 50% on ebook titles.

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2025-11-19

curl’s zero issues

The curl project briefly achieved zero open issues. If you want that for your project, there are a few simple things to do.

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2025-11-05

Giving contribution gifts: the risks and rewards

Giving contribution gifts can be a great way to reward people for the work they do in your project, but it comes with challenges.

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2025-10-15

Splitting conversations splits community

Community leaders are often too quick to segment conversations into different channels, which effectively hides the activity.

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2025-10-08

Ruby Central’s lesson in how not to do it

Community-driven projects run on consensus. To make changes, you need buy-in from the core members, at a minimum.

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2025-10-01

The solution to deadlines is usually “cut scope”

Doing less work is both effective and least likely to upset your users. Fewer functional features beats more half-implemented features.

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