Hello there

[Daniel Holbach]

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Morten Kjeldgaard schrieb:
> "One of the best means of contributing to Ubuntu is by helping to package
> the thousands of different free software applications available."
> 
> This statement encourages people to start packaging software, a road
> filled with frustration and -- given the huge backlog at REVU -- a long
> waiting time before you feel that you start contributing. I am afraid that
> many Ubuntu fans and prospects are lost with this approach.

Absolutely agreed - I thought I did changes in the past to fix that, it
seems that either things got worse again or I was not clear enough.

"Having a package" is nice and I understand why people think it's a good
way to be involved, but I'd much prefer if we put effort into fixing the
stuff that we already have, plus I think it teaches you much more.


> I think we need to re-think this introduction as an _educational effort_.
> And I think the FIRST thing newcomers should be taught is how to use
> Launchpad, how it is structured, how the developers use it, and how the
> newcomers can help the developers by reporting bugs and triaging.

Great! Let's start an effort in the new year, together, with whoever is
interested in teaching that, to help people learn the ropes easily.


> Another very useful and easy thing a newcomer can do is to help with
> translations. Rosetta is a wonderful tool, it's really easy to use and you
> immediately feel you are being useful.

Agreed, though I'm not sure this should be in the MOTU namespace - what
do you think?


> Some newcomers are experienced programmers and packagers already, and
> although we should channel these people into a different direction, it is
> still really important that they know how Launchpad works (it's not always
> obvious, even to a tech-savvy person :-)).
> 
> Perhaps everybody should be required to have triaged a certain number of
> bugs successfully before being allowed to move on in the training process.

No objections there.


> I volunteer to draft a new GettingStarted page, and I will collect with
> gratitude any contributions from this list or otherwise.

Excellent.

I'm happy to review, improve and discuss. The only thing I'd like
MOTU/GettingStarted to be is
 - a concise landing page
 - that links to all the important pages (so we have one good answer and
the new contributor one page to bookmark)
 - and gets people a sense of direction

What do you think?

Have a great day,
 Daniel

- --
My 5 today: #310334 (meta-gnome2), #294604 (zabbix), #310290 (cups-
pdf), #309529 (epiphany-browser, gnome-desktop-sharp2, avant-window-
navigator, icewm, go-home-applet, nautilus-open-terminal, gnome-
launch-box, gnome-main-menu, quick-lounge-applet, awn-extras-applets,
netbook-launcher, galeon), #303264 (cheese)
Do 5 a day - every day! https://wiki.ubuntu.com/5-A-Day
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