Getting Started in Open Source

I really, honestly love programming... I also love collaborating, exchanging ideas, learning better and faster ways to accomplish things that I'm already familiar with or, even better, learning completely new things that broaden my horizons as a developer or person... I enjoy getting feedback from friends - or programmers I'm building friendships with on GitHub, hearing their thoughts about my code and what I could have improved.

But what shouldn't come with the territory - and n...