What is an open-source project

When a project is open source, that means anybody is free to use, study, modify, and distribute your project for any purpose.

How I made my first open-source project

I started this for displaying famous quotes which some people might find helpful. The project name is My First Quote. Then I though why not make it open-source and let other people add their own quotes. That was when I decided I wanted to make my project open-source. This project is also aimed at those developers who are beginner at contributing on open-source projects.

For making a project open-source you need the following files:

Open-source license
README
Contributing guidelines
Code of conduct

As the project maintainer these files will help you manage contributions and communicate expectations.

And if these files are present in your root directory of your repository it will help Github recognize and surface them to your readers.

1. Chossing a license

An open-source license guarantees that others can read, use, copy, modify and contribute back to your project without repercussions. You must have an open-source license when you want to launch an open-source project.

Sinc ther are lots of open-source licenses out there here the most famous and commonly used license.

for other open-source license click here

When creating a new repository on Github you will be given the option to choose the license. Including an open-source license will make your project open-source. open-source-license

Writing a README

README are simply used to explain how someone can use your project. But a README can also explain the following :

Purpose of the project.
Techs used to build this project.
How do I get started
Where can I get more help.
And sometimes contacts and more info about the project.

When you add a README file Github will automatically display it under the project files.

For writing a good README see :

makemeareadme

3. Writing contributing guidelines

Since contributors are spending their precious time contributing to your project no matter how small they are doing it for free so having a friendly tone and offering will feel them more welcomed and exicted to participate.

For me to get contributors I think this is the most important part. For writing a good contribute guideline first have a clear idea of who are going to contribute to this project. If it's their first time contributing, so your guidelines must be beginner friendly.

The information you might include might be the following:

How to report a bug
How to suggest a new feature
How to setup your environment and run tests

4. Code of conduct

Code of conduct is setting the rules for your project partcipants. A code of conduct empowers you to facilitate healthy, constructive community behaviour.

5. Choosing the right name

Pick a name that is easy to remember and ideally gives an idea of what your project is about. For example:

Sentry monitors apps for crash reporting
Thin is a fast and simple Ruby web server

When naming your project Clarity must have the top priority.

Making your project open-source