As an open source contributor myself, I can’t help but notice, based on my own experience, the overwhelming negativity that plagues projects and the community as a whole. Or perhaps that is an atypical perception, stoked by my own insecurities. Either way, yet another recent example of an individual viciously lashing out a group of free open source developers brought these thoughts to the surface yet again.

But even if I’m in the minority, my take on the current vibe can’t be unique. Surely others feel the same way, possibly even highly valued developers who contribute to and create exceptional projects. What if one (or more) of these developers, one day, throw their hands up in they air, toss their work aside, and give up? I’ve been close to this conclusion myself before. Again, I doubt I am unique.

Burnout seems to be a common condition among open source developers, especially those associated with high-value projects. Is burnout accelerated and compounded by a lack of consistent positive feedback? I think so. Let’s look at the type of feedback that developers typically receive:

Feature requests (your project is missing something) Bug reports (your project is broken) Support requests (help me make money using your work, for free of course, quickly — it’s important!)

Yes, some developers contribute code to other projects. I’ve been on the receiving end in several of my projects, on several occasions. But these are not nearly as common as the three interactions described above.

So, how can we fix this problem? How can we make it easier to compel others to provide positive feedback and reinforcement to open source developers? Does an effective mechanism already exist? If not, we need to create one. Unfortunately, I haven’t come up with a solution yet. I’d love to hear some ideas from the community.