Contributing to Open Source for the first time was terrifying for me. I looked through some Github projects and the code included, and I felt like I was looking at a brick wall.
Furthermore, I looked through some of the pull requests and comments and realized I had no idea what was happening.
In fact, I still feel that way with the majority of the projects I look at!
But, I felt like I had to put myself out there and contribute to something, even if it's only a tiny issue to learn the relationship between Git and Github better, as well as learn the pull request workflow.
In today's article, I'll describe how I contributed to open source for the first time, and some of the barriers I ran into as someone at #100Devs.
My First Steps
The first step I took to contribute to open source was by visiting First Timers Only. This website gave me a few great resources to start my open source journey.
Some of those resources included:
Good First Issues This is the site where I found my first open-source project.
I would recommend finding a project that sounds interesting to you! Nothing is worse than pouring in your time on a project that doesn't sound engaging. Even if you're editing documentation, it's worth it to find a project that you can see yourself continuing to contribute to in the future.
How I Learned to Contribute
Contributing for the first time was intimidating for me, but I tried to make it as seamless as an experience possible. So... I turned to YouTube, and I found this video from Meta!
The video broke down exactly how to go through the normal workflow of a contribution. From forking a repository to coding to creating a pull request, it covered everything I would need to make my first contribution.
I followed this video 100%.
My Process to Contributing for the First time.
I decided to update the documentation of a project that I found interesting as my first open source contribution.
I did this by skimming through the documentation, copying all the text, then pasting the text into Grammarly to try and find mistakes. Then, I'd update the text in the read me or documentation file, then create a pull request.
It didn't take me a ton of time to update grammar and spelling mistakes.
Why Should You Update the Documentation of an Open Source Project?
It felt like I was cheating by only updating documentation. I mean, I'm not coding anything or contributing in a big way to a project.
Although, I found this article by Google which states that effective documentation can build strong, inclusive communities that can increase the use of your project.
Moreover, I found this article which says that the job for software engineers can become much more difficult with poor documentation, or in some cases, impossible.
I realized I was doing more than I thought from reading those articles. By updating documentation, I was able to lessen the barrier to entry for other developers who might want to contribute to a project and build a stronger, more inclusive community.
Don't doubt the power of updating documentation for an open source project.
Why Not Get Started Today?
After reading this article, I hope you have enough confidence to contribute to Open Source for the first time!
I strongly recommend updating the documentation of a project that you find interesting online. It could be as big as contributing to React, or as small as a Foodie app. Whatever it is, update the documentation and start to get your feet wet in the community!
It felt good having my first ever pull request merged, and a nice comment back from the project owner. Small comments like that can keep me motivated for months to continue contributing to other projects.
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