This is my simple and very effective method to become an open-source contributor.

"Embrace the wisdom of past workers, for their experiences illuminate the path to a wiser future.”

Start Small: If you are new to open-source contributions and have no experience, Try to explore the ‘good-first-issue’ or ‘easy-fix’ issue from the CLOSED section. Reading 4 or 5 issues will give a good understanding of how the discussions went on the ticket and how the issues were solved. Learning from previous works is one of the finest resources for every open-source project.

Raise your level: Try to read the bug-fixed issues from the closed section. This shows how the logical bugs were identified and reported in the GitHub ticket. How they were brought to the attention of the maintainers. How they were discussed among the contributors and maintainers. Later they were reviewed and merged into the master branch.

Time to lift heavy weights: Now again read the closed issues which are about the features created and merged. Learn how the contributor took the conversation to understand the requirements. This is the key moment since a new feature is added to the existing project. Now it is time for you to explore the features to be developed and start your journey by starting the conversation with the maintainers.

There is a famous couplet in Tamil by Avvaiyar -

“கற்றது கைமண் அளவு, கல்லாதது உலகளவு” , "Katrathu Kai Mann Alavu, Kallathathu Ulagalavu"

Translation “Known is the amount of sand in the fist, Unknown is the total sand in the world”

Hence, Learning is a never-ending process for developers. Similarly, Software is never a bug-free product 😛

Become Samurai: By the time, You are well-known about the project structure. You know where to lead and what to do. It is also time to give a hand to the newcomers to make another SAMURAI!

Conclusion: During the starting phase, Put your major effort into learning the past works and raise your level. Do not urge to contribute at the initial stages of open source. Learn more and do less. After a good grip on the project, Do more! Happy contributing !!.