u/MathStriking9624 — reddlx

▲ 48 r/gsoc_2027

Every good first issue I found already had 5 people on it, so I changed how I pick repos!!!

When I started with open source, I did what everyone does. I opened a big org and filtered by good first issue. Everything was either assigned or already had 5 people asking for it. I just picked random ones, and a few times someone else's PR got merged before I even finished mine.

The biggest mistake I made was commenting on issues before even running the project. A few times I said I was working on it and then got stuck on setup for days. Felt bad leaving it like that, and I almost stopped trying.

Then my senior shared a list of beginner friendly repos with simple setup and that helped a lot. I also stopped using the repo filter and just used GitHub search: is:issue is:open no:assignee label:good first issue language:javascript and sort by recently updated.

Also started checking the GSoC archive for orgs that got selected many times, their mentors actually reply. And now I don't comment on anything until the project runs on my machine. If nothing good is open I just do missing tests or old docs, nobody fights over those lol

After that I actually started finishing PRs instead of dropping them halfway.

So if you're starting now don't just grab the first good first issue you see, spend some time finding the right repo first

Anyone else made the same mistake when starting out

u/MathStriking9624 — 7 days ago

▲ 3 r/learnprogramming

Read the last few merged PRs before opening your first one. I learned this the hard way

If you're about to open your first PR, go read the contributing guide and the last few merged and closed PRs first. It would've saved me a closed PR and a lot of back and forth.

My first PR got closed even though the code worked. Tests were in the wrong folder, my commits didn't match the project's format, and someone else was already on the same issue. All of it was written down, I just didn't look.

For the next one, I commented on the issue first and said what I planned to change. The maintainer pointed me in a different direction before I wrote a single line. That PR got merged without much fuss.

It feels slower when you're excited to just start coding, but it's way faster than redoing the PR three times.Curious abt what small habits others here picked up that got their PRs merged faster.

reddit.com

u/MathStriking9624 — 14 days ago

▲ 26 r/gsoc_2027

These sloppy PRs are killing open source contributions

My friend, a maintainer of a large open-source physics tool was ranting about these AI-fabricated PRs. This was also the talk of the town at KubeCon Mumbai this year in the Maintainer Summit. 30 minutes. Just to discuss this.

It has become especially difficult to distinguish slop PRs from real ones. Many of my PRs were initially closed, but after I DM'd the maintainers on Discord, they eventually merged them. My friend’s organization had closed down ALL their PRs over the last 2 weeks simply because they couldn’t handle the situation.

I recommend beginners and people new to OSS development learn best practices through workshops or events so this doesn't happen so often. I owe a lot to open source, including my first job and internship. So I hope this community takes this seriously and keeps open source alive. I could recommend some workshops and FOSS initiatives in the comments below for beginners.

I know that open source is now critical for getting jobs and internships. But please be responsible and respectful 🙏

u/MathStriking9624 — 21 days ago