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  • Andrea (Drea) Tamar Pinskipinskia@hachyderm.io
    Oct 24, 2026, 6:05 AM

    Maintainers of open source projects should be mentoring folks to become their replacements. Not just thinking this is about controlling their project.
    I have learned this the hard way for gcc.
    You can't just think it is your way or the highway. Also gsoc is NOT a replacement for mentoring inside the project. It should supplement the mentoring that is done, just like an internship.

    Also this is not unique to gcc, it is many open source projects.
    And then there is the gaming of github stats, the one or two commits in llvm and leave issue. Those are used to gain stats for a job.
    Seriously open source is broken because of the gaming of the system.

    Even inside companies where you have the person with the most open source commits. Or the person who opened the most issue. Or the person who reviewed the most. (What is funny is that i am that person but I am not trying to play the game of counting, I am just trying to push gcc forward).
    At the same time I am mentoring folks both inside and outside of qualcomm on both gcc (and even to a less sense llvm) and performance analysis.
    But going back to my original point is mentoring and maintainship overlaps. It is not one or the other but rather both in the same role.

    By the time you step down you should have at least mentored a few to be able to take you from you. If you have not you partially failed a as a maintainer as the project will no longer can be maintained in the future.

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Replies

  • lobingeralobingera@chaos.social
    Oct 24, 2026, 6:22 AM

    @pinskia "Maintainers of open source projects should" - just wondering, as i cannot read this from your profile: What is your role in open source projects?

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  • Andrea (Drea) Tamar Pinskipinskia@hachyderm.io
    Oct 24, 2026, 6:39 AM

    @lobingera
    For gcc, I have the following official roles:
    Global reviewer
    Aarch64 reviewer
    Libobjc maintainer

    A reviewer in gcc is basically a maintainer who can approve patches from everyone but has to get approvals for their own. Gcc deciced a few years back (maybe over 10 now), to change the global maintainer role into a global reviewer role. But global reviewers have a huge say in the project.
    I am also for the last 3 years or so to have the 3rd most commits in gcc. Averaging around 30 commits a month.
    I have been gcc unofficial bug triager for the last 20+ years (this is not an appointed role, I just have been doing that long). I also Averaging around opening one issue a day for the last 4 years.
    I also write the weekly newsletter for the gnu toolchain, something which I started to get do mentorship and more people interested in gcc (and other part of the toolchain).

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  • Brahmsbrahms@chaos.social
    Oct 24, 2026, 7:33 AM

    @pinskia @lobingera

    a bit off-topic, but is there an explanation/discussion on the maintainer/reviewer roles you have at gcc?

    do you think that mentoring is already encouraged by this system or do you suggest a structure "outside" of the project maintainer/reviewer process?

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  • sarah tonin :wlfBlep:SRAZKVT@tech.lgbt
    Oct 24, 2026, 6:34 AM

    @pinskia i believe the github profile contribution calendar is a net negative for foss bc it only counts certain things but not others. it doesn't count discussion, debugging, mentoring, answering questions, bug triaging, even though those are just as important as authoring code and filing issues, which are the only ones being counted

    even worse, it only counts code authoring if it lands in the root repo, which means a soft fork with platform specific patches, or a hard fork using the github ui to link to the original, will not be counted at all, making it wholly useless

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