Conversation

One thing I've learned contributing to free software projects

When you arrive at a new project with an intention of contributing you can't know all the history and the state and all the decisions made in the project. And there is no way you can learn it fast. And no one is going to create a documentation for you. It is likely that the information you need won't be written down anywhere in a public form. So you'll make assumptions. And while everybody does so, sometimes new contributors don't question their assumptions. They start working right away according to their assumptions. But people are mistaken so often and this is usually the case for the assumptions of the new contributors. The right thing to do before starting working on the contributions is to discuss your assumptions with the project team, because this way you can get informed before you actually do something in a wrong way. This is a simple idea, but simple things sometimes are hardest to realize.

[Additionally,] when one comes to a project team to discuss their assumptions it is most likely will be answered properly as to my experience. Unlike some other attempts to communicate, e.g. "what do I start with" or "explain me how do I solve it" kinds of questions.