Pretty much that. And to elaborate, there is no shame at all asking for help. I can think of a few ways in which to do this: - If you are the sole maintainer

Pretty much that. And to elaborate, there is no shame at all asking for help. I can think of a few ways in which to do this: - If you are the sole maintainer of a project, putting up a note in the README asking for a co-maintainer or someone to take over the project entirely. - Responding to emails with, "I'm swamped/I don't think I can do this right now, can you help/would you be willing take on this role?" Totally acceptable. There are lots of eager developers out there who would be willing to contribute to an open source project if they could. - Posting on HN asking if anyone is willing to help out. :-) I get that sometimes stuff happens in real life--illness, working long hours, taking care of children or family members--these are all perfectly valid reasons for not being able to put in the time needed to work on an open source project. However, the developer community cannot offer its help if said help is not asked for.