What Kind of Mindset Should We Have Towards Open Source?
Categories: Thought
Recently, several developers I admire have been affected by open source work, and the domestic open source environment is not very good. I want to talk about what kind of mindset developers and users should have towards open source so that we can continue to happily write code we like. There might be some misunderstandings on my part, and I welcome everyone to point them out.
For Developers
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First, let’s clarify a big premise: I write open source code to make me happy. Writing code that I like is a very happy thing for an engineer. If my work is also liked by many people, then I’m even happier. Based on this premise, it’s very simple: stay away from everything that affects our happiness. The first thing to do is to refuse, refuse unreasonable demands, refuse things you don’t want to do.
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Secondly, you need to realize that I don’t actually need to be that responsible. First of all, open source projects are generated by passion. We don’t commercialize and make money from them, nor do we sign甲方 and 乙方 agreements. Excellent programmers are very serious and responsible about their work, but in the open source community, if you don’t have enough time, being overly responsible will make you extremely exhausted.
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Let more people help you. The reason I super like playing with Github is that there are many interesting and capable friends. We can find a good group of students among the users to participate together. They will also enjoy writing code as much as you do. At the same time, you will receive a lot of feedback and suggestions, and even mutual learning of technologies. This can help you save a lot of effort and have more time to focus on the long-term development of the project.
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Do not create easily joinable social groups. In the open source process, writing code is actually the easiest part. Often, facing difficult or impolite users, or users who keep asking repetitive questions, will exhaust developers. So here’s a very necessary suggestion: do not create WeChat user groups, do not create DingTalk user groups, do not create Feishu user groups. Do not create any Q&A groups that are easy to join through domestic social tools, because the cost of joining is very low, and users will be anxious when they encounter problems, which will make you spend a lot of time solving problems. It is recommended to use Github Issues to report bugs and Discussions for communication, because this method is asynchronous and will not exhaust you.
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How to make yourself worry-free? In addition to the above, there are some other things that will make you worry-free. First, open source products must have clear and easy-to-read documentation, FAQs, and contribution guidelines. When there are problems, first guide users to check the documentation to solve them themselves. With clear code and submission tutorials, capable users can help you submit code themselves, which will save a lot of effort. Another important point is that code inevitably has bugs, so careful testing before release is crucial. Bug-free code will make users more comfortable.
For Users
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Having a cooperative mindset is super important. Many times, developers are also users. Users refer to friends who use other people’s open source projects. As users, before seeking help, we need to realize that there is no甲方 and 乙方 relationship between open source project users and developers, and developers are not customer service. When we encounter problems or are unhappy, we should have a “cooperate to solve this problem together” mindset. If you have any suggestions or feel uncomfortable using it, or you think it can be done better, describe it clearly and communicate through issues or emails to solve it, giving maintainers more input, so as to better promote its development.
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Having a curious and learning mindset. Many times, as users, when we browse open source communities and Github trending, we often find many super fun things, and we also feel, “Wow, this person is awesome,” and exclaim that the code is well written. Then we clone the code, run it locally, and if we find something that can be optimized, we submit a PR, which is quite fun.
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Having a mindset that I can also become a developer. Users actually don’t need to look up to developers. In fact, everyone is the same. They all started by writing code step by step. It’s just that they started playing with open source earlier than you. In fact, as long as we persevere, participate in community contributions from easily accessible problems, and even help answer questions in your favorite open source projects, and gradually let the author guide you to write code together, it is actually a very good growth path.
Finally, what I want to say is Please feel free to use and contribute to the development. Everyone should be more relaxed and easygoing. Writing and using open source are all for that unique happiness that engineers have. There’s no need to be too serious.
I also look forward to the domestic open source atmosphere getting better and better with everyone’s efforts.