I contributed code to the TC39/test262 repo, aka the Official ECMAScript Conformance Test Suite—not something I had on my 2025 bingo card. I found the issue on up-for-grabs because I wanted a new challenge (I have been micro-soldering for the past eight months.)

Yes, I know what this newsletter's name is, but I wanted to share it with you all because their non-code contribution game is really good. They are nice, responsive, welcoming, forgiving, and patient.

Richard Gibson, Jordan Harband, and André Bargull are great programmers who know how to make drive-by contributors feel comfortable even if they think they have no business submitting code to a TC39 repo. As much as I would like to say that it was all me and my AI code assistant that did the work, it wasn't. It was them showing me what I was doing wrong, submitting code of their own to help me fix what I couldn't figure out. When they slap the "help wanted" label on their issues, they take it seriously.

Many other projects can learn from that, especially if they are actively seeking help.

What projects have you found to be really helpful?

Richard interviews Alexander Petros on htmx and sustainable, simpler tools take a listen.