What I missed in the article is a suggestion to also try and fix the problems you find in the code. Creating patches that macthes the style of a project, submit

What I missed in the article is a suggestion to also try and fix the problems you find in the code. Creating patches that macthes the style of a project, submitting them and handling the communication that usually follows including update to the patch until accepted is a good learning process too. And then you've also helped the project. Win win win win. And finally. Remember to go back to your own code. You'll be amazed at how many warts you suddenly see. Things to improve, fix, change and cleanup.