In open source development projects, contributions other than coding such as documentation and support are especially important.

The ReadME Project , which explains the open source community on the online repository platform GitHub, explains the contributions required in the open source community other than coding.

Non-code contributions are the secret to open source success · GitHub
https://github.com/readme/featured/open-source-non-code-contributions

Sarah Rainsberger, a math teacher living in Canada, started studying JavaScript and web development as a hobby, even though she had no programming experience, in order to build a website for the choir she belongs to.

Rainsberger then decided to use the front-end framework Astro to build the website. However, since Astro was a new technology and there were few resources for learners, he deepened his understanding while participating in the Astro development community.

Mr. Rainsberger is the maintainer of Astro at the time of writing the article. Of course, Rainsberger has honed his web development and programming skills, but he is not primarily involved in coding, and his role is to compile Astro documentation and answer other people's questions. .

'I didn't know the most about the inner workings of a project, but I knew how to explain things and guide people through the learning process,' said Reinsberger, a math teacher. I also knew who to ask if something wasn't right.'

The ReadME Project says, ``When we hear of open source contributors, we tend to think of people who do coding, adding features and fixing bugs.However, open source development projects involve much more than just coding. That's the type of work Mr. Rainsberger does.'

'Open source projects need the same things to be successful as commercial products need to be successful: documentation, localization , marketing, graphic design, Things like testing, community management, and resource management.'

Nate Waddington, a developer at the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, a foundation that aims to promote container technology, said, ``Even if you write a great program, it's hard to explain what it does and how to use it.'' If not, no one is going to use the program.' He added, 'You don't need a degree in computer science to write documentation. You don't need a degree in English. There are opportunities for people of all skill levels to participate.'

But while it's clear that non-coding contributions are important, how can maintainers recruit contributors? Mr. Rainsberger searches X (formerly Twitter) and if he finds someone who posts that he found a typo or mistake in the Astro document, he will invite them to try fixing the document. 'It's an easy way to modify documentation and give people an opportunity to participate in the project,' Rainsberger said.

Thea Flowers, founder of Winterbloom , which develops open source effects modules, recommends building a community on a chat platform like Discord or Slack and making it easy for participants to ask questions. . Additionally, maintainers can add tags such as 'Help Wanted' or 'Good First Issue' to questions, which will increase the number of contributors to the proposed issue.

Additionally, the ReadME Project recommends that participants who contribute outside of coding should also be given visible recognition through badges and awards. This not only helps keep contributors motivated, but also helps attract new contributors. 'We try to provide many opportunities for people to feel valued and recognized,' Rainsberger said.

The ReadME Project says, ``It's time for everyone to recognize the role that documentation, support, and other non-coding contributions play in keeping open source projects alive.'' It's never too early, it's never too early.'

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