What Should OpenSSL Improve for Individual Contributors?
Aditya Koranga Wed 8 Jul 2026 4:10PMPublicSeen by 76Hello everyone, hope you are doing well!
During the last OpenSSL Corporation Face-to-Face meeting, I had the opportunity to present feedback collected from the Individuals Community. The presentation was based on Individuals community discussions, survey responses, conversations with individuals at various conferences, and general feedback received over the past several months.
The presentation highlighted what the community appreciates, as well as several recurring pain points(slide 04 and 05). I'd love to hear from an even wider audience.
Do these pain points resonate with your experience?
Do these pain problems(from slide 04 & 05) resonate with your experience? Vote below and let us know.
poll by Aditya Koranga Closed Wed 15 Jul 2026 3:00PM
Results
| Results | Option | % of points | Voters | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes, I relate to these pain points. | 50 | 5 |    | |||
| No, my experience is different.(pls tell ur pain points) | 50 | 5 |     | |||
| Undecided | 145 |               |
10 of 155 votes cast (6% participation)
Dmitry BelyavskyWed 8 Jul 2026 4:17PM
For me the review process is one of the pain point
Nikolas GauderMon 13 Jul 2026 12:54PM
When I looked at the codebase for the first time, I found it difficult to understand due to the extensive use of macros
Shubham KumarWed 8 Jul 2026 4:17PM
Yeah, I agree with the point (especially page 5).
There are already so many open PRs and issues that it can discourage new contributors. I sometimes find myself wondering whether it's really worth spending time preparing another PR or opening another issue if it's just going to sit in the backlog indefinitely.
It starts to feel like adding another drop to an already overflowing bucket.
A better approach must be taken as soon as possible.
Michael BaentschWed 8 Jul 2026 4:17PM
While these are all valid problems, they are well-known and acknowledged; for some, even solutions have been discussed in Brno (e.g., PR review and issue resolution process). Thus, I'd dare state that a bigger pain point is a lack of communication in (and/or participation towards) moving solutions forward: Just another poll with ultra-low participation feels as irrelevant as proposing things to which no feedback is given (https://openssl-communities.org/d/96qzarIB/topics-for-brno-f2f-meeting).
Kurt RoeckxWed 8 Jul 2026 4:17PM
I understand some of the points, but others are unclear. It's also not clear what should happen as result of this vote.
Aditya KorangaSat 18 Jul 2026 4:21PM
@Kurt Roeckx Could you let me know which points you found unclear?
The goal of this poll is to identify the most common pain points, bring them to the community's attention so that they can be prioritised and we can try to find some solutions around them, and also uncover issues the project may not yet be aware of.
Kurt RoeckxSat 18 Jul 2026 5:00PM
PR feedback loop needs to be improved: What are the problems seen with the feedback loop? It takes too long? It's unclear what needs to change, or something needs to change at all? There are conflicting feedbacks? The feedback doesn't cover the whole PR, and you need to wait for someone else? Or something else?
Making the contribution process easier for Individuals: What does this mean? What are the issue they see? This again seems something that doesn't actually identify any issue, just that there might be some unidentified issue.
"can AI be utilised to reduce these numbers" is not an issue, it might be a solution.
-
"Looking back, how have we improved after receiving several criticism. Did
we make any changes/progress?". This is again not a specific problem.
So maybe this is all just formulated in a strange way, and you're just looking for feedback, and that are some of the topic you think about people might want to comment on.
Aditya KorangaSun 19 Jul 2026 6:14AM
@Kurt Roeckx oh ok i got it now. yes i think some of the statements could have been formulated in a better way and maybe the actual prsentation explaining these slides would have made it easier to understand. Btw these pain points/feedbacks are collected from the individuals through several engagements. and I wanted to show the overall summary of them alongwith other things.
We have observed that pull requests (PRs) often go unnoticed or do not receive timely, constructive feedback. This delays the review and merge process, and can discourage contributors from submitting future PRs. this one
Given the large number of open issues and PRs, contributors often find it challenging to identify a suitable issue or feature to work on based on their experience and capacity, determine the appropriate person to contact for guidance, understand whether an issue is already being worked on, or whether an existing PR is likely to resolve it before they begin their own work, etc.
Yes The question, "Can AI be utilized to reduce these numbers?", was intended as a proposed solution to the pain problem of "large number or issues and open PRs". It was included to encourage discussion and explore possible AI-assisted approaches during the Brno F2F meeting.
The last one can been seen here for refernce.
Aditya Koranga ·Sat 18 Jul 2026 4:08PM
@Michael Baentsch yes, proper communicaiton is required and thanks for stating(this is also mentioned in the slide no. 8 btw). We will do our best to improve in this area- yes One obvious straightforward way is that BAC/TAC needs to be more active and engage with the comments/feedbacks provided