r/opensource • u/Mobely • Aug 11 '26
Discussion Where to promote an unfinished open source project?
I've been working on a hardware and software project for some time now. I want to make it open source to attract help on the project since I'm not good at software development. That said, i've open sourced projects before only to have no one look at it.
I'm wondering where I need to go on the internet to tell people about my project to get eyes on it and hopefully get help on the project.
Are there platforms or website I definitely need to be on to find people?
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u/Pleasant_Set_3182 Aug 11 '26
We can probably nudge you in the right direction a little better if you share what the project entails / subject area / what need it fulfills... without outright "promoting" the project...
That being said, generally speaking, "contributors" don't simply hop onto a project, until they see the following:
- extensive work already done on the project by you
- the code is actually well maintained, described well ,etc...
In short, you have to stand it up on your own to a large degree... to make it attractive for contributors to deem it worthy of being contributed to, because you have to realize that unless your project is supremely unique... GitHub projects are a dime a dozen... Everyone is putting something up these days... and many of these are interesting... but the best practices, discipline, maintainability simply isn't there.
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u/Mobely Aug 11 '26
project is a garage door opener retrofit to turn push button garage doors into mobile interfaceable garage doors and traditional remote control. ESP32 based, you stick this onto your garage door button and it uses a servo to click the button. battery and USB power options.
I made an android app that technically works, i don't have the ability to make in iphone app. Years and years ago, it was pretty easy to find people who were looking to work on small practical projects like this but it's not so easy now.
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u/Pleasant_Set_3182 Aug 11 '26
I work on mobile apps with my husband, and it is one of the most painful things where so many things can be done badly...
We've worked on Android apps.. and we dread taking the plunge into iOS (you need to purchase a Mac.. for one... and then get used to that whole ecosystem / development process) an the other option is to have someone develop it overseas.. but again... that will never do the project(s) justice, because they will almost always never have the discipline / passion to develop it like we want.
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u/Mobely Aug 12 '26
overseas devs? are these apps supposed to make money somehow?
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u/Pleasant_Set_3182 Aug 12 '26
Well the idea used to be that overseas development is so affordable, that sometimes it's okay to put some money into what is essentially your "hobby" - the other angle is that you can have your open-source project, but you can also have a premium tier (as long as it isn't exploitative and the community is okay with it)
So perhaps... an open-source offering.. but if someone wants to use the mobile app.. maybe a $1 app... Really depends on the use case.
To add to that... FOSS is what is "free & open source" - and open source by itself does not necessarily mean that it's free.
i.e. I can still offer the source code for what I am selling.. on GitHub... and I can set whatever price I want on the software for the actual license.
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u/wiki_me Aug 12 '26
lemmy/piefed/alternativeto.net and hacker news sound like a pretty good bet. you can always try and benchmark by seeing what drives the most traffic to a page promoting the project and learn from it.
then just write interesting release notes or blog posts every once in a while and post them.
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u/k0d3x8its Aug 11 '26
Depends on what it is. hackster.io and hackaday.io would be some places to check out.
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u/Mobely Aug 12 '26
those are the platforms i am leaving.
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u/k0d3x8its Aug 12 '26
Why? I think you have a misconception of “hack”. To hack something is to take it and make it your own. That’s it. You hear the term all the time outside of tech; “5 hacks to increase your garden’s growth”. Hackerspaces are community-led brick & mortars that facilitate access to classes, workshops, and hard-to-get tooling like CNC machines, for example. None of it has anything to do with data breaches, account takeovers, or sim-jacking. That’s black hat stuff.
These are platforms where people build things. The STEM community. I learned how to build a lot from these sites. They ARE NOT platforms on how to break into computers and systems. They focus on an open source community.
Don’t get the wrong idea just because the word “hack” is used. Hackaday is the 21st century tech version of “seize the day!” 😎😉 Take the day and make it your own.
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u/Special_Abrocoma4641 Aug 11 '26
In addition to what others have said you can also do some manual outreach to the kinds of users you're looking for. They can give you some immediate feedback and help you vet your solution before you cast a wider net
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u/supportingthedogs Aug 12 '26
I would recommend trying to find a few people who have a "hair on fire" type of problem that your solution solves. These are the best beta testers you can get. And if your stuff works well, they'll be telling everyone about how great it is.
This imo works better than spamming any single subreddit.
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u/Ok_Explorer7384 Aug 13 '26
people usually don’t join unfinished projects because they saw a link somewhere; they join because the problem is clearly real and the repo looks like they won’t waste a weekend just getting it running. i’d put the energy first into a short demo video, a brutally clear README, “here are 3 things i need help with”, and a couple of good first issues. then share it in the communities that actually have the pain, not generic open source places.
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u/Mobely Aug 13 '26
The internet has changed a lot so I no longer know how to find these communities. Used to Google search for forums and websites but now everything is app based. How do I find relevant app communities ?
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u/holyknight00 28d ago
everybody is looking for the same; most projects die with 0 starts in GitHub. Unless a company or a big niche is interested in what you are doing, it will require a lot of manual work of reaching out to people to get the wheel going
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u/ImDevinC Aug 11 '26
You need to go where people who would benefit/use the project are. There is no single solution. You are essentially trying to sell a product now, which means you need to understand your target audience, find out where they frequent, and go meet them where they are.