[openbeos] Re: WalterCon 2008: Change of Plans

Dennis d'Entremont wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 5:23 PM, Urias McCullough <umccullough@xxxxxxxxx> 
> wrote:
> 
> > 2008/7/22 Jorge Mare <kokitomare@xxxxxxxxx>:
> > > http://www.haiku-os.org/getting_involved_in_haiku
> >
> > Oh...we need to update that indeed :)
> >
> > Still mentions M. Phipps as the "accountant".
> >
> 
> Part of the reason that I don't put a whole lot of faith in that page is 
> precisely that which you have just mentioned. It's hard to tell if what 
> is listed is still needed or not.
> 
> I also think that new community members can be quite shy and maybe not 
> willing to speak up themselves right away. Maybe a weekly or monthly 
> message saying something like "We need your help" and listing current 
> tasks that general users and/or professionals can help with would 
> encourage more volunteers.
> 
> Also, if there are a few people like me who don't check the website super 
> often (other than the RSS feeds of the main page) then we might not 
> notice when/if these sections of the website get updated.
> 
> The last time I offered to help with general stuff nothing ever came of 
> it so that's also a little discouraging but won't stop me from donating 
> some of my time in the future. I may be qualified to help around the 
> website with general maintenance and content updating. I'm not a super 
> writer but I can manage. I will offer my help in that regard. 
> Unfortunately I am not an accountant, lawyer, or copyright nerd so I'm 
> sorry I can't help much there.

We absolutely need help with all this stuff. The problem with regards to 
these administrative tasks and the website are:

a) People who see what work needs to be done and then try hard enough to 
execute to get results are very rare.

b) With code you can send patches. If memory serves, every single new 
contributor we have got has started by simply popping up with a patch. 
Sometimes they have been active in the bugtracker before, or have even 
attached patches to tickets. I may be forgetting someone, but I cannot 
remember a single instance where someone introduced himself on the 
developer list and asked for work or an introduction or help with getting 
started, and ever actually became a contributor. Regardless of how many 
nice welcome messages were the reaction or how throurough the getting 
started help. So either people pop up out of nowhere, see the work and 
become motivated enough to do it, or they don't. What is extremely helpful 
is accurate instructions on the website for getting and building the 
source. From what I hear from my student Andrej, our source code layout is 
quite lucent. The problem is that I don't see a similar infrastructure for 
becoming involved with the administration or website. There is no basis on 
which people can pop up out of nowhere and fix something which always 
bothered them. Any ideas what we could do about this? Is what I am saying 
even making sense? :-)

Best regards,
-Stephan

Other related posts: