The Open-Source Chatbot That Accidentally Built a Community

Explore the journey of an accidental open-source project in this 45-minute conference talk from linux.conf.au 2022. Discover how a simple chatbot for National Novel Writing Month participants evolved into a thriving community-driven project. Learn about the challenges of scaling, maintaining, and improving an open-source tool while navigating the complexities of community management, international collaboration, and unexpected growth. Gain insights into project management, code maintainability, and the importance of community feedback in open-source development. Understand the pitfalls of relying on closed-source APIs and the benefits of establishing proper structures early on. Follow the speaker's journey from solo developer to community facilitator, and explore how this project connected people worldwide during uncertain times. Gather valuable lessons on harnessing free and open-source software to address non-technical needs and turn ambitious ideas into reality, even if by accident.

Intro
National Novel Writing Month
Local Groups
Discord Migration
Winnie the Writing Bot
DevOps and Cloud Infrastructure
Velociraptors
Going International
Cross-Group Interactions
Timezones
Emoji
Obligatory Accessibility Rant
How Not to Handle User Feedback
Outscaling the Codebase
Virtual Novel Writing Month
Ostensibly Competent Dev
Issue 94
The Community that Winnie Built
Localis(z)ation
Events, Great and Small
How to Catch a Project Manager
The Project Manager
Playing Catch-Up
Board of Heroic Exploits
Rebuilding
Missed Deadlines
The Crash
Community Goodwill
Translation
Building Cohesive Teams
Project Management
Wheaton's Law
Teamwork
Story of a Community