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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2024-05-22

Write a vision and mission statement for your project

Your project’s vision and mission statement give the community an ideal to rally around. They define what your project is — and isn’t.

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2024-05-15

Combinatorial releases won’t help

The general software release workflow looks like something Gutenberg would recognize from 1440 because it actually works pretty well.

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2024-05-08

Use care in examples and placeholders

Placeholder configs for services that the user will interact with should be intentionally broken to protect users and innocent bystanders.

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2024-05-01

Release announcements must be a part of your process

Release announcements give you a chance to create buzz around your project that can help attract new users and contributors.

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