[seddona]

Interesting to see exponential growth in NixOS github stars https://star-history.com/#NixOS/nixpkgs&Date . Perhaps the user base is reaching a tipping point where there will be the resources to address some of these problems.

[floatingatoll]

What fraction of those who starred a project on GitHub become committers to and/or donate more than once to it?

I've always assumed that this is a vanishingly small amount, on the order of one in ten thousand or so, but I could be underestimating.

[jonringer117]

Currently, there's 8.7k stars, 7.2k forks. And 2000+ maintainers have added themselves: https://repology.org/repository/nix_unstable

So, I would say a pretty large portion.

Also, the contribution model for nixpkgs is just opening a PR, so it's a fairly low (non-technical) barrier-to-entry for most contributors.