The importance of growing contributors into maintainers
When someone is a new maintainer and sees their personal involvement in a project increase, they are often ignorant to the larger needs a project might have as it grows. It’s easy for them to say, “this is an easy bug fix; I can do it” or “I can spend a weekend writing documentation,” which is appealing when they are so heavily emotionally invested in the project. But what happens when that one bug becomes five, or a weekend that needs to be invested in writing documentation also has to compete with spending time with friends and family or being able to rest and recharge? Having more maintainers lessens that load and helps all maintainers focus on where their energy is best spent.
Let’s look more specifically at some of the main reasons why growing contributors into maintainers is so important to a project, starting with the need to alleviate the stress on current maintainers.
