The burden of an Open Source maintainer

• ansible-role-docker

  12 1,688 6.0

  Ansible Role - Docker

I mark bugs, security-related issues, and planned features with appropriate labels, and the stale bot ignores those: https://github.com/geerlingguy/ansible-role-docker/blob/mast...

Not all maintainers do the same. And some even _lock issues_, which I hate, because even closed issues can have a very fruitful discussion long after the issue was originally posted.

• mui-rff

  4 473 6.8 TypeScript

  MUI 5 / Material UI + React Final Form

After ~25 years of open source and regretting a lot of my earlier behaviors as a younger human, a couple years ago I created another open source project [0].

I made a point of setting it up right from the beginning. Easy build system, fully unit tested, code of conduct, automated CLA signing, examples, good documentation and most importantly, I am excessively kind to anyone who comments or gives feedback. This took an inordinate amount of time up front, but was worth it.

I'd say the result of this is that I've gotten a couple high quality contributions, zero stress and very very little feedback. It has been a pleasure to maintain this project because it causes me no pain at all.

I'd say that maintaining 200+ projects is just insane really. You've overdone it. It is impossible to do any of them extremely well and of course you're just going to invite 200x more drama. Don't do that.

[0] https://github.com/lookfirst/mui-rff

• WorkOS

  workos.com sponsored

  The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS. The APIs are flexible and easy-to-use, supporting authentication, user identity, and complex enterprise features like SSO and SCIM provisioning.

  

• bevy

  573 32,210 9.9 Rust

  A refreshingly simple data-driven game engine built in Rust

  

I'm doing this role over at Bevy[0]. Docs, project management, and mentorship (plus my technical contributions). It's incredibly valuable for the project, and has allowed us to scale up to hundreds of active contributors in less than two years. We do our best to welcome and encourage other folks in the same sort of role; there's always more PR reviews, issue management and community building to be done.

Incidentally, this work has led to an official role with the project, tons of professional experience and contacts, and some well-paid consulting gigs. I have a very strange and spotty resume due to health issues, so it's been frankly life-changing.

[0]: https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy

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