Building trust and getting accepted
One of the biggest mistakes developers make in trying to participate in open source projects is thinking that an open source project is just there for the taking. Developers may think that just because the source code is available, anyone can just come in and do whatever they want with it. That could not be further from the truth.
An active open source project is developed by a community of people that are very passionate about their code. You could imagine that their project is their little baby. They take care of and protect it. Although open source developers are particularly open and accepting, they need to trust you before you can actually contribute anything.
Imagine if it was one of your projects and a random person that you have never seen before just comes in, makes decisions, changes your project direction, or tells you what you should be doing next. You would probably not be very happy. You would need them to start slowly, make a...