In the GNU/FOSS and broader open source world, we often hear that there aren’t enough maintainers, that projects are struggling, and that the workload is overwhelming.
This is true.
But it’s also true that many communities remain passive in addressing this problem:
- They don’t organize to ask for help.
- They don’t launch recruiting initiatives.
- They don’t actively plan for the future, even when their projects seem stable.
As the saying goes:
“The lights are on, but nobody’s home.”
Perhaps this is just my personal perception.
However, looking at places like this support request board, it’s evident that the number of support and maintenance requests should be at least three times higher than what it currently is.
It’s not enough to have a handful of people doing their best — we need many more hands, many more voices.
Personally, I’ve always dreamed of becoming a maintainer of key projects like GNU Bash and GNU Make.
However, every time I tried to approach, I always had the feeling that there was no clear space for newcomers, no visible path to join and grow within the project.
As if all the seats were already taken.
Waiting until a crisis comes is already too late.
Even healthy, active projects should be working today on building a bench of future maintainers, welcoming new contributors, and spreading the knowledge.
This is not meant as a criticism — quite the opposite.
I deeply appreciate initiatives like Maintainer Month and what they represent: a real effort to raise awareness about the importance of maintainers.
This message is rather a call to amplify these efforts,
to keep doors more open, and
to recognize and encourage those who want to join and help.
Because an open source project doesn’t survive only through code:
it survives through a living, speaking, welcoming community.
If we stay silent, closed, and static,
we will end up with the lights on, but nobody home.