2026-09-30

Providing project emails

Giving project email aliases to contributor is a nice recognition with practical benefits. But the modern email landscape makes it harder.

Categories Posts

2026-09-17

What you do matters more than what you intended

Whether it’s a feature in the software or a service you provide, once it’s there, people will expect it to remain there.

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2026-09-02

Maintainer’s Guide to Hackfests

I just published the Maintainer’s Guide to Hackfests — a short, practical guide for getting the most out of participating in a hackfest.

Categories Resources

2026-08-26

Removing inactive maintainers

Removing inactive maintainers guards your project from account takeover attacks. Create a kind, effective policy to avoid hurt feelings.

Categories Posts

2026-08-19

The J curve, or: it gets worse before it gets better

Process changes often degrade performance before they make it better. Understanding and a (very) little bit of calculus help you navigate.

Categories Posts

2026-08-12

Be prepared for big feelings when you take something away

We all like to think that we’re very rational and make decisions logically. We’re not and we don’t.

Categories Posts

2026-07-22

How to close issues

Closing issues keeps the issue tracker more useful. But you have to handle different types of closures differently.

Categories Posts

2026-07-15

The importance — or not — of reputation

The problem with reputation is that it doesn’t answer the question you want to answer (unless that question is ‘who is well-known?’).

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2026-07-10

You probably don’t need an LTS release

The time not spent backporting fixes to an LTS release is better spent improving test suites and upgrade paths.

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2026-07-02

What size project needs a code of conduct?

A code of conduct should be part of the initial foundation of a project. It’s just as important as `git init` to building a healthy community.

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