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180 changes: 180 additions & 0 deletions surveys/2026-collaborator-health-survey.md
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# Healthy collaborator base survey

## A bit about you

### How long have you been contributing to the project? (single-select question)

- less than 1 year
- 1-2 years
- 2-5 years
- 5-10 years
- 10+ years

### Which working groups or teams do you participate in? (multi-select question)

- Security team
- Diagnostics working group
- Build working group
- Performance team
- Release working group
- Website team
- Next 10 working group
- Loaders group
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@JakobJingleheimer JakobJingleheimer Mar 9, 2026

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I think Loaders group is basically defunct now

- TypeScript team
- uv wasi team
- node api team
- Other (specify)
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Suggested change
- Other (specify)
- Test runner team
- Userland migrations team
- Other (specify)


### Is contributing to Node.js part of your job ?

- Yes (if yes please specify what % or what tasks (new features, bug fixes, etc))
- No

## How did you get involved

### How did you first get involved ? (single-select question)

- Attended Node.js Conference
- Attended collaborator summit
- Code and learn
- Joined working group
- Issues/PR(s) to address problems I was having
- PR(s) to add new features I wanted
- PR(s)/Issue(s) because I wanted to get involved in the project
- PR(s) to improve code coverage
- PR(s) to improve tests
- PR(s) to fix flaky tests
- Pulled in by other collaborators
- Other (specify)

### Why did you get involved ? (multi-select question)

- Hobby, wanted to contributed to a key open source project
- Using Node.js personally wanted to contribute
- Work for a company that uses Node.js, encouraged to contribute
- Joined a team at the company I work for that contributes
- Other (specify)

### What would have made it easier to get involved ? (multi-select question)

- More documentation
- Easier ways to contact existing collaborators
- Easier ways to get guidance/direction from existing collaborators
- Faster build time
- Easier build process
- Mentoring
- Better identification of work that needs to be done across the project
- Other (specify)
Comment on lines +35 to +67
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I think it would make sense to ask these conditionally if the respondent has said their tenure is less than 2 years (otherwise, we already have this info from previous surveys, and even if we don't, those responses will be outdated info).


## What keeps you around

### What makes you want to continue contributing to the project? (multi-select question)

- Working Groups
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- Working Groups
- Working Groups / Teams

- Features development
- Bug fixes
- Recognition in the larger community ecosystem
- Other (specify)

### What makes you less likely to continue contributing to the project? (multi-select question)

- Code reviews are to strict
- Code reviews are too slow
- Code reviews are too lax
- CI is flaky
- CI takes a long time
- Builds take a long time
- My work is not valued
- Required process to get a PR landed
- PRs take too long to land
- Long discussions on PRs
- Having to deal with AI slop contributions
- Other (specify)
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- Other (specify)
- Toxic peers
- Other (specify)


## Level of contribution

### How many hours do you dedicate to the project in an average week? (single-select question)

- 0-5 hours
- 5-10 hours
- 10-40 hours
- 40-80 hours
- 80+ hours

### Are you able to contribute as much as you would like? (single-select question)

- Yes
- Almost
- A bit
- No

### If you are not able to contribute as much as you would like, what is preventing this? (multi-select question)

- My company actively interferers with Open Source contributions
- My company does not support my contributions
- Competing work or professional obligations
- Competing personal obligations
- Contributor burnout or fatigue
- The review and PR process is slow or discouraging
- My contributions are frequently rejected or go unreviewed
- Lack of required technical expertise in certain areas
- Local development or testing environment challenges
- Having to spend time dealing with Node.js PR AI slop contributions
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- Having to spend time dealing with Node.js PR AI slop contributions
- Having to spend too much time dealing with AI slop

- Other (specify)

### How frequently do you encounter AI-generated ("AI slop") contributions — such as low-effort or poorly adapted PRs — in your Node.js collaboration work? (single-select question)
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### How frequently do you encounter AI-generated ("AI slop") contributions — such as low-effort or poorly adapted PRs — in your Node.js collaboration work? (single-select question)
### How frequently do you encounter poor-quality AI-generated contributions ("AI slop") in your Node.js collaboration work? (single-select question)

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Previous questions refer to "AI slop", but it's defined here. I think the definition should be moved earlier.


- Never
- Rarely (a few times per year)
- Occasionally (a few times per month)
- Frequently (once or twice per week)
- Very frequently (several or more times per week)

### On average, how much of your Node.js collaboration time is spent reviewing, addressing, or closing AI slop contributions? (single-select question)
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### On average, how much of your Node.js collaboration time is spent reviewing, addressing, or closing AI slop contributions? (single-select question)
### On average, how much of your Node.js contribution time is spent reviewing, addressing, or closing AI slop? (single-select question)


- None
- Less than 1 hour per month
- 1 – 3 hours per month
- 4 – 8 hours per month (roughly 1–2 hours per week)
- More than 8 hours per month (more than 2 hours per week)

### Please rate your agreement with each statement below. (1 = Strongly Disagree, 5 = Strongly Agree)

- AI slop contributions negatively affect my experience as a Node.js collaborator
- Dealing with AI slop has reduced my motivation to continue contributing to Node.js
- Because of AI slop, I am considering reducing how often I review certain contribution types
- Because of AI slop, I am considering stepping back from reviewing entirely
- I would support introducing an official AI slop label for flagging and tracking these contributions
- An AI slop label would meaningfully help the team manage contribution quality
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These are all AI-negative; should there be some AI-positive options like

- Vibe-coding helps my contributing experience and/or makes my contributions more productive
- Agentic-coding makes my contribution time more productive

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I think there should also be some kind of "n/a" in the matrix


### How do you use AI tools in your own Node.js contributions? (multi-select question)

- I do not use AI tools in my contributions
- Code generation or completion (e.g., Copilot, Cursor)
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- Code generation or completion (e.g., Copilot, Cursor)
- Code generation or completion (e.g., Copilot, Cursor, CodeRabbit)

- Debugging or error analysis
- Writing or improving documentation
- Writing or reviewing tests
- Researching unfamiliar APIs or concepts
- Drafting issue descriptions or PR summaries
- Other: ___________

### Overall, how useful have AI tools been in improving the quality or efficiency of your Node.js contributions? (single-select question)
- I do not use AI tools in my contributions
- Not useful at all
- Slightly useful
- Moderately useful
- Very useful
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Let's combine this with that strongly dis/agree above :)


## Plans going forward

### Are you planning to keep contributing this year?

- Yes
- No (specify)

### Are you planning to keep contributing for the next 5 years?

- Yes
- No (specify)

### What would you like to change to improve the current environment?