Contributor Hubs, group all interesting ressources for contributors
Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2017 10:51 pm
Dear contributors,
I think we all agree that we would love to have new contributor in FreeCAD. There is certainly all lot of people how would like to contribute to FreeCAD, but I think the first steps are really hard to achieve. For example, before modifying the wiki a new contributor need to 1) create an account in the Forum 2) post a message to ask for a wiki account 3) get validated 4) get use to the wiki interface 5) Improve the wiki by translating or creating new pages. In my knowledge, this procedure is not on the wiki. I think you can agree that it can discourage someone which just want to correct a typo error, but if this persons find a wiki page with clear information of all those steps, he or she will probably find the energy to change this page.
Now that this post is introduced, let's see what already exist and how improve the current situation.
Currently, There is one post in the forum which help to get started: How to get wiki editing permissions https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=6830. A post on the forum then link to https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/WikiPages. This "wikipages" is a great resources and contain most of the information necessary to start contributing to the FreeCAD documentation. In my knowledge, there is no, easy-to-find link to access this page from the main page. Also, I think this page should be factorize: 20 sections, It's too much, and it contains off topic information (ex: 16 Sandbox Macros recipes). In my knowledge, there is no information to how is the best way to promote FreeCAD.
In short my proposition is: regroup most of the contributor resources on the wiki. A good way too achieve this group would be to create a "Contributor Hubs" in the https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Main_Page. Then, modify and if necessary create several pages to initiate the new contributor. It should not be redundant with the developer hubs, so in this hubs, any thing linked to writing a line of code would just point to the right developer section. Idem with macro and the Power users hub.
I though about those pages for a start:
- How to make your first improvement of the wiki?
- How to translate a page? (already exist in developer hubs could be place here)
- How to create a new wiki page?
- Most of the different section of the https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/WikiPages deserve there own page: wiki writing style, add illustration, wiki structure, etc..
And because contributing is not only about coding and improving the wiki:
- How to promote FreeCAD? (list of argument in favor of FreeCAD, marketing material, it could link to presentations, external articles for example)
- How to share a video of FreeCAD? (video tutorial are great to promote the use of FreeCAD, which are the good practices? Where to share on FreeCAD forum? Where to create a link on the wiki? which software to record ...)
- How to report a bug? (The report bug page in developer section could be place again here, because this page is relevant to the programmer profile and the non-programmer contributor)
- How to give feedback to the FreeCAD community? (where to place testimony of your experience, Who and where to ask for a new feature, where to share a great idea, etc...)
- Next events related to FreeCAD (if exist)
I don't want to redo any thing which is already done. I would like to gather on this message the different resources at the disposition for the contributor. I'm quite new here, so I don't know everything about FreeCAD contribution, so don't hesitate to share unquoted resources in your reply. I will than edit the list below:
wiki pages:
Main current resources: WikiPages https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/WikiPages
Translating FreeCAD https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Localisation
Find assistance (bug track) https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Tracker
Contributors (list of contributors) https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Contributors
Category:UnfinishedDocu https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Category:UnfinishedDocu
Wanted pages https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Category:UnfinishedDocu
Forum post:
How to get wiki editing permissions https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=6830
Request for collaboration: Creating a visual flow chart for reporting bugs https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=20804
Other site link to FreeCAD:
https://github.com/freecad/homepage
Do you think it's a good idea? Should it be done an other way?
Do you know any other resources that I did not quote? I will edit the list.
edit:
- add github, UnfinishedDocu, Wanted pages
I think we all agree that we would love to have new contributor in FreeCAD. There is certainly all lot of people how would like to contribute to FreeCAD, but I think the first steps are really hard to achieve. For example, before modifying the wiki a new contributor need to 1) create an account in the Forum 2) post a message to ask for a wiki account 3) get validated 4) get use to the wiki interface 5) Improve the wiki by translating or creating new pages. In my knowledge, this procedure is not on the wiki. I think you can agree that it can discourage someone which just want to correct a typo error, but if this persons find a wiki page with clear information of all those steps, he or she will probably find the energy to change this page.
Now that this post is introduced, let's see what already exist and how improve the current situation.
Currently, There is one post in the forum which help to get started: How to get wiki editing permissions https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=6830. A post on the forum then link to https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/WikiPages. This "wikipages" is a great resources and contain most of the information necessary to start contributing to the FreeCAD documentation. In my knowledge, there is no, easy-to-find link to access this page from the main page. Also, I think this page should be factorize: 20 sections, It's too much, and it contains off topic information (ex: 16 Sandbox Macros recipes). In my knowledge, there is no information to how is the best way to promote FreeCAD.
In short my proposition is: regroup most of the contributor resources on the wiki. A good way too achieve this group would be to create a "Contributor Hubs" in the https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Main_Page. Then, modify and if necessary create several pages to initiate the new contributor. It should not be redundant with the developer hubs, so in this hubs, any thing linked to writing a line of code would just point to the right developer section. Idem with macro and the Power users hub.
I though about those pages for a start:
- How to make your first improvement of the wiki?
- How to translate a page? (already exist in developer hubs could be place here)
- How to create a new wiki page?
- Most of the different section of the https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/WikiPages deserve there own page: wiki writing style, add illustration, wiki structure, etc..
And because contributing is not only about coding and improving the wiki:
- How to promote FreeCAD? (list of argument in favor of FreeCAD, marketing material, it could link to presentations, external articles for example)
- How to share a video of FreeCAD? (video tutorial are great to promote the use of FreeCAD, which are the good practices? Where to share on FreeCAD forum? Where to create a link on the wiki? which software to record ...)
- How to report a bug? (The report bug page in developer section could be place again here, because this page is relevant to the programmer profile and the non-programmer contributor)
- How to give feedback to the FreeCAD community? (where to place testimony of your experience, Who and where to ask for a new feature, where to share a great idea, etc...)
- Next events related to FreeCAD (if exist)
I don't want to redo any thing which is already done. I would like to gather on this message the different resources at the disposition for the contributor. I'm quite new here, so I don't know everything about FreeCAD contribution, so don't hesitate to share unquoted resources in your reply. I will than edit the list below:
wiki pages:
Main current resources: WikiPages https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/WikiPages
Translating FreeCAD https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Localisation
Find assistance (bug track) https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Tracker
Contributors (list of contributors) https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Contributors
Category:UnfinishedDocu https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Category:UnfinishedDocu
Wanted pages https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Category:UnfinishedDocu
Forum post:
How to get wiki editing permissions https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=6830
Request for collaboration: Creating a visual flow chart for reporting bugs https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=20804
Other site link to FreeCAD:
https://github.com/freecad/homepage
Do you think it's a good idea? Should it be done an other way?
Do you know any other resources that I did not quote? I will edit the list.
edit:
- add github, UnfinishedDocu, Wanted pages