Category: Posts

2024-08-15

Volunteers can’t be blockers

Figure out which processes are truly critical and accept that the non-critical ones may get missed from time to time. If you have paid contributors, they should be responsible for the critical processes.

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2024-08-07

“Helping” versus being helpful

Every situation is different, so ask “would it be helpful if I _?” When you get agreement on your help, your work will be helpful.

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2024-07-31

When to add QA to your project

Add QA when someone volunteers to do it. Recruit QA when your user-reported bugs start to overwhelm your developers.

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2024-07-24

A veneer of organization

Building up too much process early is a way to look busy without accomplishing anything. You have to fit it to the community’s need.

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2024-07-10

Your project is political, people’s identities aren’t

No project that involves people is “purely technical.” And “ideologically motivated” is not a synonym for “bad”.

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2024-07-03

“Finished” and “no longer developed” aren’t the same

Software is finished when it reliably does what it’s intended to.

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2024-06-26

Tasks and projects: what’s the difference?

It’s not always clear how to distinguish between tasks and projects. My rule of thumb: tasks have binary state, projects have several states.

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2024-06-19

Membership needs a removal process

People need to be removed for a variety of reasons, and having planned ahead makes the process much easier.

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2024-06-12

The easy fixes probably aren’t in your code

Mature projects don’t have many easy fixes left in the code. But test coverage, documentation, websites, and other areas probably have plenty.

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2024-06-05

Public mistakes are a feature of open source

Everyone who is good at something has a trail of [mistakes] in their wake. Open source means sharing the learning experience with others.

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