I enjoyed reading this. I can relate to the point about reading open issues of a project to know exactly what state the project is in and where it is going.
While I don't actively participate in many open source projects, I have found myself reading the mailing lists and watching the issue trackers for a few projects over the past few months and as a result I feel that I have a very good idea of what is going on with them.
While I don't actively participate in many open source projects, I have found myself reading the mailing lists and watching the issue trackers for a few projects over the past few months and as a result I feel that I have a very good idea of what is going on with them.