Subject: Re: [TOPIC 07/11] New Contributors and Discord

From: Kousik Sanagavarapu <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2024 22:32:11 +0530

Taylor Blau <[email-masked]> writes:

> How to attract new contributors? + Community Discord
> =====================================================
> 
> (moderator: Jonathan N + Calvin Wan, notetaker: Emily)
> 
> * jonathan: we talk about this a lot 🙂 let's avoid the common pitfall
>   of catering to the tiktokkers and the youths (hypothesizing about
>   "current generation"):

I guess I would fall into the "youths" category ;)

I started contributing about a year ago although most of my activity was
during the GSoC'23 period.

> * jonathan: related to community discord server - what does it mean to
>   function better as a community?
> * calvin: the entry point doesn't need to be discord, but we should pick
>   some entry point that lets users contribute other than mailing list
>   participation
>    * and need to be able to navigate new contributions comfortably
> * brian: how to write text that's accessible to non-native english
>   speakers, for example? the mailing list isn't great for these kinds of
>   changes.
> * discord is proprietary, that is sometimes an issue
> * moderation on discord is an issue - having an unmoderated discord will
>   actually drive away contributors. that means actual dedicated
>   moderation
>    * balancing between sufficient moderation (list) and ease of use
>      (discord)

I don't know if we get new contributors complaining about our workflow
being centered on the mailing list but I personally find the list really
intuitive to work with.

Even if we do eventually move towards a more "user-friendly" interface
_for_ new contributors, they may still need to read through history for
certain changes they maybe working on, ON the list.

> * patrick: new contributors sending changes but the changes being
>   ignored

I do remember the time when I first contributed and was anxious about
the reply but I guess even if someone else doesn't review a particular
patch, Junio gets around to it eventually (which is not ideal, we want
more reviewers...) so they are not completely lost... everytime.

Although it would be great if there was some kind of an interface to say
that this patch is a new contribution to anyone going through the
messages similar to what Calvin said above.  So that if the patch were
simple enough then maybe some of the newer contributors may also have a
go at reviewing the patch.

> * brian: git-send-email is a barrier, but so are PRs/MRs in some cases

I think the main barrier is the configuration of git-send-email rather
sending the patches themselves.  Since most people have gmail accounts,
the setup becomes a pain because of the two-factor-auth and creating app
passwords and for someone who is mailing a minor change, this indeed
feels like a lot of effort not worth the time or energy.

> * jonathan: we don't advertise well that we can accept contributions in
>   a different way if people are committed to the improvement
>    * peff: sometimes a mentor can "translate" a contribution. Individual
>      contributors are already interested in mentoring, do we need
>      more/different mentoring?

I think having mentors would be great thing.  Even if it is not 1:1.

Another thing that would be great is having a list of things on which a
new contributor could work on.  GitGitGadget's issues used to do this by
tagging the appropriate issues "good-first-issue" but I guess it is not
properly maintained anymore.

I know there is also searching for "#leftoverbits" or "low hanging fruit"
on the list but the "good-first-issue" tagged issues on GitGitGadget are
probably more new-contributor-friendly than whole email threads.

>    * nasamuffin: Gerrit has a community meeting once/month, should we
>      use discord for f2f video meetups?
>    * peff: if people want to do big group meetups great. we could also
>      use it for 1:1 meetups that way, and advertise that it's an option

I think we hit on this topic last year too in the virtual contributor's
summit and I agree that having a regular meetup would be great and
something I personally would very much look forward to.  This would also
help put faces to names.

Not exactly a regular community meeting but Review Club was kind of a
large step towards this I guess.  I was exactly in one review club
meeting and it sadly got shutdown right after that :').