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Open source is more fun with friends. If you don't have the time or energy to contribute yourself, I have a way for you to live vicariously: sponsor me on GitHub and I'll send you updates about what I'm working on. I'll also take feedback on what *you* think I should work on.

For Black Friday, I'm readjusting my GitHub sponsor goals. Instead of targeting specific dollar amounts, I've changed my goal to 10 monthly sponsors (any dollar amount). github.com/sponsors/coo...

If you contribute any dollar amount on any cadence, I'll be happy to add you to a private, bi-weekly newsletter about what I'm up to in open source (entirely opt-in).

I do about 5-10 hours per week of open source work on my own time. These days, I'm doing work in the MobX ecosystem, trying to prepare for us React Compiler compatibility. But when I want a break from that, I dig through React Native community repos and pitch in wherever I can.

How did you get into contributing to open source projects? I’m sure I speak for a lot of people when I say it’s hard to figure out where to contribute. And even when an opportunity seems promising, it’s tough to know if my contribution is even needed or part of the vision of the project.

In my case: - I volunteered to write a Redux "FAQ" page in early 2016 - Dan merged, gave me commit rights - A few months later he was busy with React, and said "here's the lib, have fun" blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2016/09/how-...

Generalizing from my experience + observations: - Biggest factor is showing up and being helpful over time. This gets you involved _and_ shows maintainers you care and can be trusted - Docs are always a great place to start. Every project needs better docs!

Beyond that: - Do read open + recent closed issues to see what's going on - Look for a `CONTRIBUTING` guide - Always good to ask "how can I help?"! Helps avoid wasted time on PRs that aren't as useful atm, and again shows your interest

Where do you recommend asking the “how can I help?” question? I know this probably sounds very basic to those already doing this stuff, but asking questions in the right setting has deterred me from asking questions in the past.

for me personally: - I see Discord pings immediately. In that sense there's no difference between a ping in channel vs a DM, but a channel ping feels a bit more considerate - I do see BS notifications frequently, but they can get buried - I check repo notifications frequently and get ping emails