Beyond Speed: Engagement Sustains Lifespan

ABSTRACT Introduction Open‐source software (OSS) projects thrive on collaborative communities, forming a critical backbone of modern technology. Despite community contributions shaping open‐source development, a gap remains in understanding how community interactions impact project longevity. To address this, our study investigates how discussion volume (as a measure of engagement), sentiment expressed in discussions, issue resolution time, and issue characteristics influence both the resolution process and, crucially, OSS project lifespan. Methods Using a comprehensive GitHub issue dataset, we applied robust statistical analyses and effect size measures across various project lifecycle stages. Results Our findings reveal that while discussion volume weakly correlates with resolution time and sentiment's practical impact is negligible, a counter‐intuitive pattern emerges: longer‐lived projects consistently exhibit extended median issue resolution times, in contrast to faster initial resolutions observed in shorter‐lived projects. Analysis of issue labels suggests this is because shorter‐lived projects tend to address beginner‐friendly issues, whereas enduring projects confront more complex, core development tasks. These findings emphasize that OSS project longevity depends less on rapid initial issue resolution and more on structured, sustained engagement with increasingly complex contributions–underscoring the vital role of qualitative communication and the nature of work in fostering robust communities.