When the project health score is low for an open-source project like CNCF or Kubernetes, here are some steps a user can take:
Review the project's health metrics: Understand what factors contribute to the low health score. Is it due to a lack of contributors, outdated documentation, or poor code quality? Knowing the root cause will help you focus on the right areas.
Join the community: Engage with the project's community by participating in discussions on forums, GitHub issues, or mailing lists. This will help you understand the project's dynamics, identify potential issues, and potentially find opportunities to contribute.
Contribute to the project: With a low health score, there may be opportunities to contribute to the project. This could be in the form of:
Code contributions: Fixing bugs, improving code quality, or implementing new features.
Documentation updates: Ensuring that the documentation is up-to-date, accurate, and easy to understand.
Testing and validation: Helping to identify and fix issues, ensuring that the project is stable and reliable.
Community outreach: Helping to attract new contributors, promoting the project, and building a stronger community.
Identify potential roadblocks: Be aware of potential roadblocks that might hinder your contributions, such as:
Complexity: The project may be too complex for you to contribute to, especially if you're new to the area.
Time commitment: Contributing to an open-source project requires a significant time commitment, which may not be feasible for everyone.
Consider forking the project: If the project is not actively maintained or has a low health score, you can consider forking the project to create a new, improved version. This can be a significant undertaking, but it can also provide an opportunity to create a more sustainable and maintainable project.
Raise awareness: If you're unable to contribute directly, you can still raise awareness about the project's low health score. Share your concerns with the community, and encourage others to contribute or help address the issues.
Explore alternative projects: If the project is too far gone, it might be time to explore alternative projects with a higher health score. This will ensure that you are contributing to a project that is well-maintained, stable, and has a strong community.
The Project Health dashboard provides a comprehensive overview of your open source project's health and activity. It offers insights into key metrics such as contributor engagement, code quality, and issue tracking, allowing you to make data-driven decisions to improve your project's success. With the Project Health dashboard, you can:
Track contributor activity and identify trends in engagement
Monitor code quality and identify areas for improvement
Analyze issue tracking and resolve bottlenecks
Make informed decisions to drive project growth and success
By providing a clear and actionable view of your project's health, the Project Health dashboard empowers you to take control of your project's success and make a positive impact on the open source community.
The Contributors Diversification metric in the Project Health dashboard provides insights into the distribution of contributions from individuals and organizations over time. This metric helps you understand how your project's contributor base is evolving and identify trends in contribution patterns.
The Individual Contributors chart displays the distribution of commits over time, broken down into three categories:
Total Commits: The total number of commits made by all contributors.
Top 21 Contributors: The top 21 contributors who have made the most commits.
All Others: The remaining contributors who have made commits, but are not in the top 21.
The chart shows the total commits percentage on the right Y-axis and the total number of commits on the left Y-axis, with time on the X-axis.
The Organization chart displays the distribution of commits over time, broken down into two categories:
Top Organizations: The top organizations that have made the most commits.
All Others: The remaining organizations that have made commits, but are not in the top organizations.
The chart shows the total commits percentage on the Y-axis and time on the X-axis.
By analyzing the charts, you can:
Identify trends in contributor activity over time.
Determine if the project's contributor base is becoming more or less diverse.
Identify top contributors and organizations, and understand their contribution patterns.
Use the metric to track changes in contributor activity over time.
Identify areas where the project may need more contributors or support.
Use the metric to inform decisions about project governance and contributor management.
Project popularity can be measured using various metrics, including project forks and GitHub stars. This guide provides an overview of how to analyze project popularity using these metrics.
A project fork occurs when someone creates a copy of a repository (project) on GitHub.
Forks can be used to create a modified version of the original project or to contribute to the original project by sending pull requests.
A GitHub Star is a way for users to show their appreciation for a project by clicking the star button on the project's repository page.
Stars indicate that a user wants to keep track of a project's updates.
To analyze project popularity, follow these steps:
Fork and Star Count: Compare the number of forks and stars a project has over time.
Fork and Star Growth Rate: Calculate the rate at which the number of forks and stars is increasing or decreasing.
Fork and Star Distribution: Analyze the distribution of forks and stars among different contributors or organizations.
Metrics for Project Popularity
The following metrics can be used to show project popularity within a selected period:
Metric
Description
Fork Count
Total number of forks a project has received over a specific period.
Star Count
Total number of stars a project has received over a specific period.
Fork Growth Rate
Rate at which the number of forks is increasing or decreasing over a specific period.
Star Growth Rate
Rate at which the number of stars is increasing or decreasing over a specific period.
Fork/Star Ratio
Ratio of forks to stars, indicating the project's popularity and engagement.