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What are the problems faced by people who are starting to contribute to OSS

8 points by sudo_bangbang ↗ HN
I'm starting a project to address the problems faced by noobs to opensource community.

I've started out with a simple readme file which explains the basic git and github workflow. Please give me feedback

13 comments

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vitovito
There will be people reading this who have never used a Terminal, or typed at a command line, or called directories anything other than "folders".

There will be people reading this who have never installed anything that wasn't from an App Store.

There will be people reading this who have never heard of source control, branches, repos, or any of the other jargon in your document.

I think the number two thing project maintainers need to do is to stop making assumptions about the background and experience level of their potential contributors; or, if they do, to admit and outline them.

I write more about this here: http://opendesign.foundation/articles/import-designers/

flukus
Someone described by those first 3 things probably couldn't do much on an OS project anyway.
sudo_bangbang
Agree with @flukus. I didn't put anything about pre-requisites because I didn't want to drive anyone away. Anybody seeing these things for the first time can just google it and learn right?
afarrell
For some people, it takes quite a while to learn to be comfortable with the command line.
bbcbasic
Some open sourcerers use Windows and Visual Studio and Sourcetree. No cmd needed!
dispo001
Everyone has to start some place.
NetStrikeForce
That's the another problem potential contributors face: Assumptions that because someone is not technical, they can't meaningfully contribute to a project. Dismissal of plain users feedback because "they don't know what they are talking about".

Unless you're creating OSS tools for e.g. developers, your final users are probably not as technical as yourself - so you might want to hear feedback from people that actually has to use your tool.

(Sorry, this is not really directed at you and I'm not picking on you, I don't know you at all! :) Your comment just reminded me of what I describe above)

Jtsummers
If this is intended for noobs, I suggest cleaning up your example fork/branch/push/pull request.

You have the reader create a branch called add-your-name, then push that to the server. Only the next example for the pull request talks about a branch called fix-readme. This will confuse novices.

soboleiv
I'd point to a few examples of pull requests which were merged into OSS projects already and explained what authors generally went through.