How to be a Committer at Apache

Becoming a committer on Apache Lucene was one of the prouder moments of my life. It was over a decade ago and the Lucene community was wonderful and attended to by many brilliant and incredible people. Almost all of them worked on the project out of passion and devotion before any secondary concerns. It was a great time to be at the project. A time when you could really learn how things should work.

Community Over Code

It sounds like a cliche, but the goal of an open source project is to maintain the best code over the longest period of time. When you put code before community you trade the short term for the longer - this is against the primary advantage of open source software development. On an open source project, community is everything. A very diverse set of people want to maintain a common resource for an extremely long period of time. It follows that community and culture are critical.

Have an Open Mind

Some of the most brilliant Lucene contributors would often pose their corrections in the form of a question. Even when they were quite sure they were right. They fostered and allowed for alternate opinions, for the idea that they were not perfect and infallible. Not only does this encourage newer contributors, but it helps keep a more open and enjoyable tone for everyone. Some people get so wrapped up in a project they start feeling ownership that is both against good community but also rationality. A good open source project belongs to everyone. You can’t have everything you want. Compromise and consensus are gods.

Be Civil

It can feel really good to win a technical argument with smug, smart people. Being civil is too important though. When the civility bar is lowered, the toxic environment starts to turn everyone off. The general good is traded in for egos. The factions and disagreements in open source are one of it’s more powerful advantages and debate is beyond valuable. But keep civil. For you. For me. For everyone.

Voting is a Last Resort

A good open source project with a good culture is flat and works on consensus. Period. You vote when consensus fails. There are a lot of personalities in open source. Sometimes you fail. But don’t aim to fail.

Clean the Bathroom - You Live Here

There is a lot of work on open source projects that is not sexy, that you are not paid for, that is not fun. Do some of this work. We all work on the project. We all eat here. Contribute with a larger view.

Pass the Culture Down

If you don’t pass the culture down it dies. Good culture is like a drug. Don’t let it die, I want a hit tomorrow. Being a committer means setting an example, helping others, doing reviews. Act by example and keep it going.

Act Like A Committer

A lot of people want to know what to do to get your commit bit. I never asked this question. You shouldn’t either. Look at what the good committers are doing. Do the same thing. Others will commit your patches. It’s great - you will never get such good reviews again. Eventually, you are a committer de facto. We will just rubber stamp it.