In the past two years I have contributed quite actively to WordPress.org, the open source project.
I started with translations and then got involved with the Community Team.
I am also one of the organisers of WordCamp Europe, where I am part of the Content team, wrangling about 40 speakers with a wonderful bunch of people (get your tickets today, we are gonna close sales on May 31st. It’s going to be amazing!).
From the conversations I had in the past 24 months, but mostly by observing my mood swings in the past few months of intense planning, with 3 weeks to go before a 3000 people event, I can safely say that this is the cycle of feelings that a lot of open source contributors go through:
Step one – Getting involved
Step two – Hit the first roadblock
Step three – Discussing the roadblock for months, because “hey, we are all volunteers, asynch, decisions are made by those who show up, time zones, hmm sorry I disagree, IMHO’s” and whatnot*
Step four – Committing the patch, wrapping up the event, taking a decision, shipping the release
Rinse and repeat.
My advice to myself when I feel #2 or #3?
Go make the web a better place by getting involved with WordPress and embrace this cycle as a possible side effect. It’s still worth it.
*These are all important steps of the conversation by the way! Without the volunteering, the involvement of people from all over the world, the 28% of the web wouldn’t happen, so be a sloth and then go back to that roadblock and solve it, dang it!