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xxzer0
3y

[ Introduction ]
In Internet culture, the 1% rule is a rule of thumb pertaining to participation in an internet community, stating that only 1% of the users of a website add content, while the other 99% of the participants only lurk.

[ The story ]
A year ago I had a problem with X software.
I opened a ticket on its repository but a week goes by and no one responds. I need it to work! So I opened a pull request and it got merged in a day or two after a quick review.

Seeing that the tickets were many and the maintainers were few, I decided to stay and help.

Today, I am in the top #10 contributors.
I have made 20 commits and edited 4k lines of code. (Honestly, it's not that much, at work I do way more than that, anyway...)

This repository is an alternative to another popular closed-source software and it's massively used by well-known companies
(tech-giants).

[ Stats ]
User base: 20.000 (all of them are devs)
Total contributors: 200 (1%)
Contributors with more than 1 commit: 60 (0.3%)

[ Consideration ]
I would never have believed a year ago that participation could be so low despite the number of dev-users being so high.

The software does not require great technical expertise and if you are using it for work then you already have the skill-set you need to contribute.

Now listen, I know that not everyone wants to contribute. I know right and I respect it ... but really:

The 0.3% ?! Only 60 devs on 20k are active contributors?! Only 200 (1%) devs have ever made a single commit and then they left.

Holy sh**

rant

open source

contribution
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Comments
  • 6
    3y
    Unfortunately, contributing to open source during work hours is rare for a lot of companies
  • 6
    3y
    Yep. Generally where I've committed to open source, it's been bug fixes and features I either need for the job or a personal project. I've done a few things here and there, but limited.

    Having the time to work on that stuff is a privilege. I tend to spend it doing other stuff these days.
  • 0
    3y
    Just to make it clear. I don't contribute during my working hours. I do it in my free time.
  • 1
    3y
    @xxzer0 That's what I mean by privilege. It's great that you can, but it's hard to find the time.
  • 1
    3y
    @atheist Watching at the numbers I understand some folks probably don't have time for that and I absolutely respect it.

    Still astonish me the current engagement is set at the 1% and I find it hard to believe nobody else got time for a single pull request maybe every two months or more.
  • 2
    3y
    @pumperrr

    At my employer it's "Spend 8-24 hours per month on education and projects which do not directly benefit the company".

    But there have been times where I've spent 100% of a month on open source, because the company needed an abandoned library or was limited by missing functionality.

    I also think the stance of many companies to not allow contribution to open source is short sighted.

    Creating tools, libraries and plugins within the open source community is excellent training for engineers -- You expose engineers to new mindsets and knowledge.

    Creating public articles, landing pages, and communities around your FOSS project is also a great way to improve internal software quality, because clear documentation is suddenly not optional anymore, and skilled engineers at other companies become your QA department.

    And lastly: It's a good recruitment tool. A company with an impressive "Github Portfolio" is more attractive to work for.
  • 0
    3y
    It sucks but I think people need some sort of motivation to do it after work. Usually the motivation is in the form of $$, occasionally there’s the motivation of putting some more flex into that inflated resume.

    Honestly, I wished companies/teams implement some sort of workflow that allows IC to contribute to the open source projects they do, especially if it is critical to the project. Maybe something like a couple of hours per week.
  • 1
    3y
    @bittersweet
    Agree with everything you said. Also sometimes companies make it hard to contribute (legal team gets in the way)
  • 0
    3y
    @pumperrr Yeah for us the rule of thumb is just "Do not open source it if it is specific to our business".

    So if I write a plugin for a static analysis tool, or an unofficial Rust SDK for a payment provider, then open source is the default.

    But a product recommendation engine... probably not.

    Nothing which disproportionately helps direct competitors or allows people to create a clone of our business.
  • 1
    3y
    I think the difference that made you part of the 1% was when you said "I need it to work!"
  • 1
    3y
    @bittersweet and its good training, working with another code and another set of devs expands your knowledge.
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