Codebook
Cultural Factors
These codes are related to the culture of the community.
Community Leadership
Where contributors would disengage as a result of actions, or lack thereof, taken by the community leadership.
Examples
A contributor describes an experience in which the project leadership fails to handle a toxic member in the community.
The leadership asking the contributor to leave following controversial information about the contributor’s private life becoming available publicly online.
Policy Disagreements
Where contributors would disengage as a result of the a constitution, code of conduct, or some sort of document that pertains to: the rules, way the community would behave, and or be governed.
Examples
This contributor mentions that the Debian community is now heading in a direction they disagreed with as a result of the Debian constitution, and is one of the reasons why they’re disengaging. Resulted in a number of Debian packages orphaned, and a long time systemmd dev leaving the project.
Project Direction
Where contributors would disengage due to the direction that a project is going in. Oftentimes, this is because a contributor wants the project to go in one direction, while the community wants it going in a different direction.
Examples
This contributor disengaged because a project they created was no longer useful to them. Rather than changing the project into something more beneficial to them, they realized that the community depended on it for its current use. As a result, they disengaged from the project.
Community Hostility
Where contributors would disengage due to community hostility whether it’s directed specifically at them, or just an abusive community in general.
Examples
This contributor disengaged because of the hostile Linux kernel community. Although they were technically respected, they were not respected as a person. Despite trying to change the behavior of the community they felt like any drastic changes in their culture wouldn’t be happening anytime soon.
External Factors
These codes are related to influences (outside of the project) that result in the contributor disengaging.
Left Company Which Used the Project
Where contributors would disengage with the project because they either quit their job which was working on the project itself, or the project was used by them at work.
Examples
This contributor left Basecamp where they worked on Ruby on Rails development.
I left Basecamp today. I’ve also resigned from the Rails core team.
This contributor left after a corporate restructuring resulted in a significant number of employees leaving, many of which worked on open source software.
No Longer Useful
Where contributors would disengage because the projects are no longer useful to them. Some lost interest in the language itself, changed interests, and/or found a better solution to their problems.
Examples
This contributor was no longer using the projects they were maintaining anymore, and didn’t want to maintain something they were no longer has a use for. Following an uptick at work they started feeling guilty as well for not being able to care for nearly 180 Java packages. As a result of their departure, all 180 packages for Fedora were orphaned.
Not Enough Time
Where contributors would disengage because of external factors affecting the amount of time they could allocate to the project(s). Usually as a result of a change in jobs, or an uptick in the amount of hours they’re working.
Examples
This contributor left their company which had them working primairly on two projects, and they even had leadership positions in said projects. After their departure from the company, they no longer had much time to dedicate to the project and announced they were stepping down.
Health Reasons
Where contributors would disengage due to various health reasons.
Examples
Self-Doubt
Where contributors would disengage due to feelings of insecurity and incompetance regarding their work (unrelated to their community).
Examples
Volunteering
These codes are related to the act of contributing in general.
Lack of Support
Where contributors would disengage due to the lack of monetary, and or physical support with the project(s).
Examples
This contributor disnegaged because despite their project’s widespread popularity and use, they didn’t get anything in return for their work.
This contributor disengaged because they felt as if they weren’t getting anything out of the project as a result. Not only was lack of support an issue, but not enough time as well citing that they could be doing “life stuff” or writing instead.
Not Enough Time
Where contributors would disengage due to lack of time. This differs from external factors because contributors cite more internal reasons such as the opportunity cost being too high.
Examples
This contributor disengaged because they felt that since they weren’t getting paid for work, they’d rather be spending their time doing things more pertinent to themself.
This contributor disengaged because on-top of their work, they were spending upwards of twenty hours a working on their project and it wasn’t maintainable.
No Longer Enjoyable
Where contributors would disengage because they’re no longer enjoyng the project, often citing that it feels like another job rather than a hobby.
Examples
This contributor disengaged because the project started to feel like their second job, rather than a hobby.
Working on a side project is fun until it becomes your second full-time job.It’s a hobby and passion. But if a hobby feels like it becomes a second full-time job, something is very wrong.
This contributor also disengaged because the lines between hobby and work started to blur while working on their project(s).
in the end its meant that I’m no longer enjoying what i was doing and it felt like work not a hobby.
Burnout
Where contributors would disengage because of feeling burned out. Typically caused by a prolonged stressors, and results in a feeling of constant mental and physical fatigue.
Examples
This contributor had been feeling overworked for nearly two years. While it wasn’t mandatory they were invested in the project, and as a result eventually burned out from being overworked.
I am also extremely burnt out. The very small mobile team has been through a gauntlet in order to ship a full rewrite of the flagship Firefox for Android browser (partly during the pandemic no less). Working too much during the week for the last 2 years was normal for me and while never asked for from my team, I cared deeply about the product and the success and it would have been impossible to hit our deadlines and ship something I was proud of without it.
Feelings of Guilt
Where contributors would disengage due to feelings of guilt. Typically associated with other factors as well, such as not having enough time for the project, and as a result feeling guilty that they’re unable to address all the issues, etc. that a project has.
Examples
This contributor didn’t have enough time to dedicate to their project due to various personal projects, and just general “life stuff.” With issues, comments, and pull request notifications filling up their inbox, they were feeling guilty that they didn’t have enough time or energy to dedicate to their various open source projects. As a result, they completely disengaged from all open source projects.
This contributor was struggling during the pandemic, and the lack of childcare services made it rough to work when they’re trying to take care of their child as well. They began feeling guilty as well for their lack of work they weren’t able to do, and was one of the factors as to why they disengaged.