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Many companies and individuals these days release parts of their work as open source software. This benefits the entire software development community and brings are new set of challenges. Maintaining open source well takes time and effort. Abandoning a project can be very problematic for your users. How does one find a balance?
In this talk we’ll discuss how we did the impossible: make the users of more than 30 ClojureWerkz projects happy and still have a life.
Many companies and individuals these days release parts of their work as open source software. This benefits the entire software development community and brings are new set of challenges. Maintaining open source well takes time and effort. Abandoning a project can be very problematic for your users. How does one find a balance?
In this talk we’ll discuss how we did the impossible: make the users of more than 30 ClojureWerkz projects happy and still have a life.
22.
responsibility |riˌspänsəˈbilətē|
noun ( pl. responsibilities )
the state or fact of having a duty to deal
with something or of having control over
someone
23.
A responsible maintainer
makes sure the users
aren’t angry
66.
Standardise
• README
• Change log
format
• Announcement
format
67.
Standardise
• README
• Change log
format
• Announcement
format
• Project layout
(Leiningen
templates)
68.
Standardise
• README
• Change log
format
• Announcement
format
• Project layout
(Leiningen
templates)
• Same process
and practices
across the board
70.
Automate
• Clojure projects
typically have a highly
regular structure
71.
Automate
• Clojure projects
typically have a highly
regular structure
• Release process
72.
Automate
• Clojure projects
typically have a highly
regular structure
• Release process
• Documentation
deployment
73.
Automate
• Clojure projects
typically have a highly
regular structure
• Release process
• Documentation
deployment
• Some things (e.g.
announcements) are
still better done by
hand (our experience)
76.
Engage
contributors• Respond quickly
• Be respectful
77.
Engage
contributors• Respond quickly
• Be respectful
• Provide context
78.
Engage
contributors• Respond quickly
• Be respectful
• Provide context
• Encourage them to
help
79.
Engage
contributors• Respond quickly
• Be respectful
• Provide context
• Encourage them to
help
• Give them credits (in
the change log, on
Twitter, etc)
80.
Engage
contributors• Respond quickly
• Be respectful
• Provide context
• Encourage them to
help
• Give them credits (in
the change log, on
Twitter, etc)
• Add frequent
contributors as
collaborators
87.
Writing
documentation
• Don't put it off till
release time
88.
Writing
documentation
• Don't put it off till
release time
• Write guide structure
first
89.
Writing
documentation
• Don't put it off till
release time
• Write guide structure
first
• Ask others to edit
90.
Writing
documentation
• Don't put it off till
release time
• Write guide structure
first
• Ask others to edit
• A complete Getting
Started guide is better
than 4 unfinished ones
91.
Writing
documentation
• Don't put it off till
release time
• Write guide structure
first
• Ask others to edit
• A complete Getting
Started guide is better
than 4 unfinished ones
• Guides reduce amount
of time spent doing
support
92.
Writing
documentation
• Don't put it off till
release time
• Write guide structure
first
• Ask others to edit
• A complete Getting
Started guide is better
than 4 unfinished ones
• Guides reduce amount
of time spent doing
support
• Guides encourage
people to contribute by
giving them confidence
93.
“But what if I’m no longer interested
in maintaining X?”