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GitHub Invites Contributions To 'Open Source Guides' (infoq.com)

An anonymous reader quotes InfoQ: GitHub has recently launched its Open Source Guides, a collection of resources addressing the most common scenarios and best practices for both contributors and maintainers of open source projects. The guides themselves are open source and GitHub is actively inviting developers to participate and share their stories... "Open source is complicated, especially for newcomers. Experienced contributors have learned many lessons about the best way to use, contribute to, and produce open source software. Everyone shouldn't have to learn those lessons the hard way."

Making a successful first contribution is not the exclusive focus of the guides, though, which also strives to make it easier to find users for a project, starting a new project, and building healthy open source communities. Other topics the guides dwell on are best practices, getting financial support, metrics, and legal matters.

GitHub's Head of Open Source says the guides create "the equivalent of a water cooler for the community."

2 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Not foolproof by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I see they're recommending a "Code of Conduct" for open source projects. How else could we possibly get along with one another if all the rules of behavior aren't spelled out in the most minute details. Generally speaking, all of those boil down to "Be civil" anyhow, just expressed in a few thousand more words.

    Is it really not adequate these days for a project or community to just tell everyone to "be civil", to enforce that civility with common sense, and leave it at that?

    --
    Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  2. Re:a Code of Conduct is a weapon by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I don't understand why a programming language, as a recent example, requires a Code of Conduct.

    A programming language doesn't: such a thing is nonsensical because a language is inanimate and has no agency. The people in the community who contribute, however, do. If you can't see why people need a code of conduct then I can only ask: have you ever met people?

    If you want your official forums to be civil, than enforce civility.

    Using your personal, unwritten code of civility, I assume, even though it differs from mine?

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.