Want to contribute to an Open Source Project, but don't know from where to get started? Well, you have come to the right place. In this article, we'll discuss how to contribute to an Open Source Project.
Firstly, I would like to make you believe that contributing to an open-source project is not difficult as climbing the Great Wall of China, it's very easy. So make your mind stress-free from the weight of the word Open Source.
First things first, to contribute to an Open Source Project, you need to stick to a definite Teck Stack (or language) in which you are proficient. After selecting a technology or language, head over to the Github and search for an Open Source Project that uses the same tech stack as yours.
In the repository of that project, navigate to the issues tab. In this tab, under the labels dropdown, select good first issue from the dropdown as shown below.
This will display all the issues of that repository, which is labeled as good first issue.
Alternative to manually finding the issue is, you can head on to this website. Under the BROWSE BY LANGUAGE on the left, select your tech stack. This will display all the issues labeled as good first issue from all the Open Source Projects having the selected tech stack.
Iterate through each of the issues of a particular project. If you have the slightest doubt that you can fix it, sure-shot give it a try. In case you get stuck somewhere, then the reviewers of the project are there to help you out and from my experience, I can say that the reviewers of the Open Source community are very helpful.
Let me share my journey of starting an Open Source Contribution with you.
One of my friends has started contributing to Open Source. He insisted that I should also start contributing to an Open Source. Initially, I was very scared like you all and were having doubts like whether my coding standards will be up to the industry standards or not, could I be able to solve the issue, and will my PR will ever get merged. But my friend cheered me up and motivated me to at least give it a try.
And there's where all the false beliefs broke out. I found an issue and tried fixing it. I found out that it was too easy to get scared. I was easily able to fix an issue. Also, it wasn't like I never got stuck up in the middle. Well, I do, but as I said reviewers of an Open Source Community are very helpful. So, I asked him and he helped me at all the places where I was stuck. Also, he suggested me some more changes wherever required from his side.
After fixing the issue, I created my first PR, and guess what it got merged. I was very happy on that day. I experienced a wonderful feeling of contributing to an Open Source world. It is unexpressive and believe me you too will experience it on that very day. After that, I found more issues and contributed to them. After gaining much confidence, you can choose to fix issues not labeled as good first issue, as I did.
In concluding words, I would simply like to wish you luck and ask you to just go ahead and believe in you, again reviewers are there if you get stuck.