The practices of peer production communities impact the ability of their participants to contribute effectively. This presentation reflects on a draft paper that examines the role of recursive and adaptive practices in enabling participation in free/libre/open source communities. Using data gathered through in-depth interviews with participants and analyzed from a strategy as practice perspective the talk will paint a picture of the constant tension between recursive and adaptive practices that focus on the core or the periphery of communities. This perspective complements and extends the traditional notion that participation in free/libre/open source communities is primarily governed by incentive mechanisms by providing rich accounts of how successful communities thrive, while unsuccessful communities implode or drift apart based on the careful management of their practices at the different stages in their life cycle. The practical implications for peer production communities and avenues for future research will also be discussed.