Know if your OSS project is losing steam

Open Source communities are hard to build and unlike 20 years ago, there is a lot of competition with millions of projects on github/gitlab and new ones popping up everyday

It can be concerning if your open-source community might be losing momentum.

How do you know ?

Here are some important signs, putting measures for each one of these could give realistic view.

1. Reduced Contributions - Fewer pull requests, reduced number of bug reports
2. Lower engagement on communication channels - Slow down on mailing list traffic, discord, IRC, getting quieter
3. Development Jam - Delay in releases, increase in backlog
4. Departing key contributors
5. No successor plan
6. Decline in number of new users
7. Outdated documentation
8. Lower attendance at events
9. Lack of funding or sponsorship
10. No clear roadmap

What You Can Do

Hold events, push for a new release, and engage on forums/social media. It may help re-ignore engagement.

Make contributing easier by improving documentation, creating beginner-friendly tasks, and acknowledging contributions.

Ensure that the core team has a succession plan and shares the responsibility of maintaining the project.

Being proactive in identifying and addressing these warning signs can help before it is too late.