Open Source Software (OSS) sustainability relies on newcomers transitioning to core contributors, but this pipeline is broken, with most newcomers becoming inactive after initial contributions. Open Source Software for Social Good (OSS4SG) projects, which prioritize societal impact as their primary mission, may be associated with different newcomer-to-core transition outcomes than conventional OSS projects. We compared 375 projects (190 OSS4SG, 185 OSS), analyzing 92,721 contributors and 3.5 million commits. OSS4SG projects retain contributors at 2.2X higher rates and contributors have 19.6% higher probability of achieving core status. Early broad project exploration predicts core achievement (22.2% importance); conventional OSS concentrates on one dominant pathway (61.62% of transitions) while OSS4SG provides multiple pathways. Contrary to intuition, contributors who invest time learning the project before intensifying their contributions (Late Spike pattern) achieve core status 2.4-2.9X faster (21 weeks) than those who contribute intensively from day one (Early Spike pattern, 51-60 weeks). OSS4SG supports two effective temporal patterns while only Late Spike achieves fastest time-to-core in conventional OSS. Our findings suggest that finding a project aligned with personal values and taking time to understand the codebase before major contributions are key strategies for achieving core status. Our findings show that project mission is associated with measurably different environments for newcomer-to-core transitions and provide evidence-based guidance for newcomers and maintainers.

翻译：开源软件的可持续性依赖于新成员向核心贡献者的转变，但这一渠道存在断裂，大多数新成员在完成初步贡献后便不再活跃。以社会影响力为首要使命的公益开源软件项目，其新成员向核心贡献者的转变结果可能与传统的开源软件项目有所不同。我们比较了375个项目（190个公益开源软件项目，185个传统开源软件项目），分析了92,721名贡献者和350万次提交。公益开源软件项目保留贡献者的比率高出2.2倍，且贡献者达到核心地位的概率高出19.6%。早期广泛的项目探索预示着核心地位的达成（重要性占比22.2%）；传统开源软件集中于一条主导路径（占转变的61.62%），而公益开源软件则提供了多条路径。与直觉相反，那些在加强贡献前投入时间学习项目的贡献者（"后期爆发"模式）达到核心地位的速度（21周）比那些从第一天起就高强度贡献的贡献者（"早期爆发"模式，51-60周）快2.4-2.9倍。公益开源软件支持两种有效的时间模式，而在传统开源软件中，只有"后期爆发"模式能实现最快达到核心地位的时间。我们的研究结果表明，找到一个与个人价值观相符的项目，并在进行主要贡献前花时间理解代码库，是达成核心地位的关键策略。我们的发现表明，项目使命与可测量的、不同的新成员向核心贡献者转变的环境相关联，并为新成员和项目维护者提供了基于证据的指导。