I don’t contribute to projects most of the time strictly due to the hurdles in place for contributions. if I see an issue with something, I would like to be able to properly fix it, not have to follow a multi month process to actually get it in

The last project I wanted to contribute to had the following system:

make an account (makes sense, its a self hosted tracker)

verify my identity and specify what I wanted to do in a whole different project in order to get validated to be able to open issues in the tracker

open an issue stating that I found a problem

state in the issue that I was willing to fix said problem

agree to sign the code away if done

wait for response confirming that it was ok

fork the project

fix the issue on your fork

create test units for the project

submit a merge on the main project

wait weeks to months for the actual maintainer teams to review the fix and make suggestions/alterations

fix any merge conflicts that was created during the time that it took to review

rinse and repeat the last 2 steps until it’s finally merged

Luckily I had noticed that the timeframe of existing requests prior to doing it, and decided to pass on it.

Don’t get me wrong, a lot of those steps are necessary for proper development cycles but, it’s the extra steps that are annoying. I’m looking to quickly contribute and move on. Too many steps or if the process seems like it will be a major pain in the butt = You can find and fix it yourself.

Most projects if they have that I will at least open an issue for it so it’s known as a problem… but some projects don’t seem to want them reported, let alone fixed.

I 100% understand the frustration. It can easily feel like you’re doing the maintainers a favor and they’re making this harder than it needs to be.
The thing is, though, from the maintainer side, it very often feels like you’re forced into charity work, because all kinds of people