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- growth: both in terms of new interested individuals and conversion to contributor. data that reflects this dimension:
- the number of contributors to the code base (github PRs)
- the number of contributors to design discussions (discord)
- the number of contributors to requirements (github issues)
- diversity: no single organization keeps the project live. data that reflects this dimension:
- the number of organizations contributing to the code base (github PRs)
- retention: interesting/useful projects attract contributors, healthy projects retain them. data that reflects this dimension:
- active contributor longevity (github PRs, discord)
- maturity: This gives context to the others, stats will be different in different life cycle phases, what may be a red flag for a mature project may not be so for a young one. can measure by age.
- when was the first commit
- frequency of releases (more mature projects have more regular cadence and have a higher success rate to achieve the cadence)
- friendliness to new contributors/ideas
- number of good-first-issues
- new contributors onboarded
- can new ideas be accommodated, even if that may lead to forking of the code base
- responsiveness: how long until proposed changes (code, design, bug reports, etc.) are given attention? data that reflects this dimension:
- time to resolve PRs and issues (github)
- time to respond to questions (discord)
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The dashboard should be customized to make sure not all dimensions are applied to all projects (to avoid steering the project maintainers to the wrong directions)
Early start metrics (stars, forks, users in chat channels): the dashboard can also be useful to the project maintainers to grow (besides being useful to the TSC)
Do contributors have conflicting priorities that may lead to split of the community or forking to a new project. should be evaluated on a case by case basis. some splits could be beneficial.
Sources/Means to Collect
github (contributors, code activities, PRs)
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