🔥 The Single Best Tip To Attract More Contributors To Your GitHub Project💡
Tags: opensource, github, programming, webdev
Published: 2023-12-20 00:42:16

---
title: 🔥 The Single Best Tip To Attract More Contributors To Your GitHub Project💡
tags: opensource, github, programming, webdev
cover_image: https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1620325867502-221cfb5faa5f?q=80&w=2057&auto=format&fit=crop&ixlib=rb-4.0.3&ixid=M3wxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8fA%3D%3D
---

Picture this.

You are excited to contribute to an Open Source project. You go to its GitHub repository. Look at active issues. Only to wonder if you’d be able to complete the task. And then never came back to it.

If it has happened to you, you’re not alone.

Most first-time contributors struggle to find issues that match their skill level or the time they want to give to the project. 

In this article, I will share the **effort-based issue labeling system** we use at [Flipt](https://github.com/flipt-io/flipt) to deal with this problem.

Implementing this will help you get more contributors to your open-source project. Also, get more contributions from existing ones.

Too good to be true? Let’s find out.


***
## TL;DR

- [Why labeling issues by effort level is a good idea?](#why-labeling-issues-by-effort-level-is-a-good-idea-)
- [Effort Level #1: extra small](#effort-level--1)
- [Effort Level #2: small](#effort-level--2)
- [Effort Level #3: medium](#effort-level--3)
- [Effort Level #4: large](#effort-level--4)
- [Effort Level #5: extra large](#effort-level--5)

***

## Why labeling issues by effort level is a good idea?

Before going over our system, let’s explore some benefits of labeling issues with effort estimation:

- **Confidence to contribute:** Effort estimation helps contributors choose tasks that match their time and skill level. This motivates them further to participate. 
 
- **Low barrier to entry:** New or inexperienced contributors can make meaningful contributions to the project by working on low-effort issues.

- **Encourage a shared understanding of the project:** Effort labels boost transparency between maintainers and contributors, as it makes clear the time commitment required for each issue.

Now let’s understand the estimation labels that we assign to the issues. These are ordered from low to high effort levels, which is also a recommended order in which new contributors should be making contributions to the project.

***
## Effort Level #1: [extra small](https://github.com/flipt-io/flipt/issues?q=is%3Aissue+label%3Axs)


![xs extra small flipt issues](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/ur9vrq77jlqhskdg9sd6.png)<figcaption>Flipt GitHub Issues labeled xs</figcaption>

These are the issues that contributors can complete within minutes to an hour. They are ideal for first time project contributors to get started.

**Example:** 
{% embed https://github.com/flipt-io/flipt/issues/2535 %}

***
## Effort Level #2: [small](https://github.com/flipt-io/flipt/issues?q=is%3Aissue+label%3Asm)

![sm extra small flipt issues](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/ut864b35wekn0p9qq3up.png)<figcaption>Flipt GitHub Issues labeled sm</figcaption>

Issues labeled with *sm*, can take multiple hours to complete but less than a day. Such issues are great for new contributors that have solved a couple of *xs* issues or contributors that find *xs* issues too trivial.

**Example:** 
{% embed https://github.com/flipt-io/flipt/issues/2546 %}

***

## Effort Level #3: [medium](https://github.com/flipt-io/flipt/issues?q=is%3Aissue+label%3Amd)

![md medium flipt issues](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/9ubkzc6ae0tvjfqmdxc1.png)<figcaption>Flipt GitHub Issues labeled md</figcaption>

These issues are not too big, not too small. Work involved here can span a couple of days. That makes it an ideal option for weekend open source contributions.

**Example:** 
{% embed https://github.com/flipt-io/flipt/issues/2532 %}

## Effort Level #4: [large](https://github.com/flipt-io/flipt/issues?q=is%3Aissue+label%3Alg)

![lg large flipt issues](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/lbyuwykpkxexfce0qdkp.png)<figcaption>Flipt GitHub Issues labeled lg</figcaption>

*lg* issues are a little bit big. It’s recommended for active contributors or contributors that have fixed multiple *md* issues. Simply due to the level of communication involved on these issues.

They might also span the frontend and backend.

**Example:** 
{% embed https://github.com/flipt-io/flipt/issues/2428 %} 


## Effort Level #5: [extra large](https://github.com/flipt-io/flipt/issues?q=is%3Aissue+label%3Axl)

![lg extra large flipt issues](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/ebipykebw22s8vvd6wf4.png)<figcaption>Flipt GitHub Issues labeled xl</figcaption>

Finally, *xl* issues are as big as it gets. These issues are rare and are recommended for contributors that have previously made successful *lg* level contributions. As such contributions will need deep understanding of the project and skill proficiency.
   
Usually these issues represent larger projects or initiatives that will need to be broken down into smaller ones before starting work. These issues are helpful to get feedback or suggestions from the community.

**Example:** 
{% embed https://github.com/flipt-io/flipt/issues/2511 %} 

## Wrapping Up

That’s it!

Now, you can use this simple-to-implement system in your GitHub project to boost contributions. 

If you need any help with that, feel free to shoot queries in the [discord server](https://discord.com/invite/kRhEqG2TEZ).
We have an awesome community there 💗

If you found this valuable, follow me for more open source related articles 🙂