9. Good communication practice

Your software and documentation won't do the world much good if nobody but you knows it exists. Also, developing a visible presence for the project on the Internet will assist you in recruiting users and co-developers. Here are the standard ways to do that.

9.1. Announce to Freecode

See Freecode. Distribution watch this channel to see when new releases are issuing.

9.2. Have a website

If you intend try to build any substantial user or developer community around your project, it should have a website. Standard things to have on the website include:

Some project sites even have URLs for anonymous access to the master source tree.

9.3. Host project mailing lists

It's standard practice to have a private development list through which project collaborators can communicate and exchange patches. You may also want to have an announcements list for people who want to be kept informed of the project's process.

If you are running a project named `foo'. your developer list might be foo-dev or foo-friends; your announcement list might be foo-announce.

9.4. Release to major archives

Since it was launched in fall 1999, SourceForge has exploded in popularity. It is not just an archive and distribution site, though you can use it that way. It is an entire free project-hosting service that tries to offer a complete set of tools for open-source development groups — web and archive space, mailing lists, bug-tracking, chat forums, CVS repositories, and other services.

Other important locations include: