Qualities of a good FOSS project

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When choosing a FOSS project, there are certain qualities one should keep in mind if a set goal is to be achieved within the project. Having a well established healthy community of welcoming developers and users is an important quality to look for in a FOSS project. This helps in creating a group of developers who are willing to help fellow devs. The project should not shy away from releasing alpha or beta versions with all the bugs outlined clearly. The developers should be open and honest about the status of the project. It's Important to us because, in order to make the project worthwhile, we have to establish a strong community around it based on honest feedback. If we inflate the dev cycle, we risk losing a lot of users. Priorities should be set and implemented according to how important a development phase is. For example, making the project easier to run despite it being a tedious task could attract developers who are trying new things and want to run their test code.A short intro video for their project could be a good idea to attract new developers especially those who are new to the FOSS development community. It is important to get them up to speed about community expectations and guidelines. This could be achieved by making templates or guides that new users that can follow to make the process of getting started on the project more streamlined. If a new user doesn't know much about the topic but is interested in the project, a short one minute video could help them get up to speed as to where the project stands.

Making sure that communication channels are kept active by encouraging users to post often will keep the discussion rolling and attract more users and devs. Sometimes, just having a casual conversation not necessarily related to the project could help keep the channel alive. It all depends on how you've set up your community expectations. 

Some of the questions you could ask yourself to clearly outline what qualities of a FOSS project are important for you are: Why am i looking to be a part of the FOSS community? Is it solely focused on learning? Am i looking for a group of developers on the internet to interact and hang out with? You can then find developers with similar feelings towards FOSS projects. Another good question to ask would be: How much do i care about the honesty about the project? There are groups of developers working on FOSS projects and releasing them before they're fully tested without opening up to the public about bugs and other missing features. They release the program portraying it as completed when in reality, it still exists in alpha or beta versions. This is a highly risky practice and could potentially land you in a legal battle if the damage is too big to control. Especially if your program is humanitarian and could affect lives. It is always better to be upfront and honest about the version and state of the program and play it safe when releasing it to the public rather than hyping it up just for the sake of attracting more users. 

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