One of the most rewarding ways I've found to contribute to open source is to connect communities and developers. Like if someone posts a fork on github, put the original developer in contact with them and make sure there's an effort to collaborate rather than differentiate.
It seems trivial and obvious, but for the dozens of times that I've been able to make a connection it really seems to pay off. As other commenters have noted, it isn't until you're developing that you realize that other developers are just like you - the same goes with assumptions of the original project creators. "He works at Facebook, he'd never respond to me" or "She is from Germany, surely there's a language barrier", etc. are all excuses that cause forking.
As we all know, it is easier to download the source, fix your bug, and not submit a bugfix - as open source projects continue to increase exponentially, I think we'll see more of the successful projects being the ones that have people actively creating & seeking collaboration rather than assuming it will occur in the wild.
It seems trivial and obvious, but for the dozens of times that I've been able to make a connection it really seems to pay off. As other commenters have noted, it isn't until you're developing that you realize that other developers are just like you - the same goes with assumptions of the original project creators. "He works at Facebook, he'd never respond to me" or "She is from Germany, surely there's a language barrier", etc. are all excuses that cause forking.
As we all know, it is easier to download the source, fix your bug, and not submit a bugfix - as open source projects continue to increase exponentially, I think we'll see more of the successful projects being the ones that have people actively creating & seeking collaboration rather than assuming it will occur in the wild.