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Barriers to contributions

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Thantos:
One thing I want to do is to remove as many barriers to contribution as possible.  My dream is for random_user_632 to see a bug or have a feature idea, code it up, and then submit it for inclusion.  In order to get there we need to first identify the barriers and then remove or reduce the ones we can.

If you've ever thought "I could do that but nah" please let us know.

I started this discussion with the SMF team, Friends, and Beta Testers and here are some of the issues we discussed.

General interest in developing the product.
This comes in two flavors:  What do I get out of it?  And, "Is it interesting to me?".
I think education/discussion can help the first camp.  The second camp depends on the answer.  If it is "yes" then we need to help that person become a contributor.  If it is "no" then there isn't much we can do.  For various reasons I'm not interesting in working on a HTTP server, the Linux Kernel, a database, or a host of other projects I use.

Programming/graphic design/doc knowledge
Ok, someone is interested and they've got that OS spirit but they do need to know how to program or design images or write a doc.  Without that knowledge they aren't much help.  What can the organization do to help those people?

Finding the repository
A friend and former SMF PM mentioned that it was hard to find the code.  We need to make finding the code for contribution about as easy as finding the downloads.

Understanding the submission procedure
I've seen this one a few times:  A person makes a set of changes but has trouble getting those changes submitted for merging into the repository.

The team
I've seen this several time:  Someone has the skills but doesn't want to contribute unless they are part of the team.  Is there anyway we can lessen the importance of the team with regards to contributions?  Or put another way:  How do we help people realize that they don't need to be part of the team in order to contribute?

Knowing what needs to be done
Especially when someone is starting out it is hard to know where to jump in.  Where should I start?  What should I work on?  How do we help people find out what needs to be done?


Please share your thoughts in both barriers you see and in how we can remove/reduce those barriers.

live627:

--- Quote ---Knowing what needs to be done
--- End quote ---
Some kind of a public roadmap would help there.

Arantor:
The biggest problem is submissions that are useful but not useful to be in the core, i.e. mods. There are plenty of mods that could be written to help a lot of people but the amount of BS that goes with doing it is what puts people off.

live627:
I really hate to be an asshole here but this is about contributions to the core 2.1 code. I feel more encouraged to send forth code on GH than here on sm.org, primarily because I KNOW my pull requests will get feedback. That, and less of the said BS gets flung about.

Arantor:
That's the thing: most of the things people would want to contribute aren't actually going to be suitable for mainline 2.1 anyway, which means most of them would have been better off not being contributed in the first place...

Nothing is a bigger barrier to contribution than 'Thanks, but no thanks', and no amount of making it easier to contribute is going to change that - except making it more common.

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