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Ask HN: Which open source projects would benefit from their docs being edited?

4 points by Becca_J ↗ HN
Hi!

I'm a freelance editor, and I'm looking to help open source projects by editing/proofreading their documentation.

Ideally I'm looking to work with something reasonably well-known so that I can provide maximum value and so I can use it for my CV, but I'm also open to helping smaller projects.

Do you know of any projects that might benefit from this, and would be happy to work with a reasonably non-technical person? (I'm okay with Git, but that's about my level.)

Thank you for your time, and thanks for any ideas you can give me!

Becca

5 comments

[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 20.2 ms ] thread
mamaar
Libre Office is a well known and big project with a large non-technical user base who can make use of some great documentation. As an editor the project might be relevant to yourself too. https://www.libreoffice.org/community/docs-team/
Becca_J
Thank you! Great idea, looking into their process for joining the team.
phantom_oracle
I'd look at suggestions made by mamaar about projects with a lot of non-technical users.

I'd also look at projects where it is growing/big but the dev team is small enough that great documentation can sometimes be difficult for them to churn out.

> and would be happy to work with a reasonably non-technical person?

As long as you know how the system works and can explain things to users, that would already be a value-add to any project. If an OSS project can't appreciate your documentation, you simply walk away and contribute elsewhere.

Even on the internet, assholes and their projects eventually whither away if they can't appreciate any great contribution (granted, you must respect their processes and not become the asshole to their project).

Becca_J
Thanks for your thoughts! Projects with non-technical users sound like a good idea.

Do you have any specific ideas on which projects might fit the bill for growing/big but with a small dev team finding it hard to provide quality documentation?

Walking away if the project / devs don't appreciate my work seems like particularly good advice. I'll keep it in mind; it should save me a lot of headaches.

phantom_oracle
> Do you have any specific ideas on which projects might fit the bill for...

Probably a good idea to track the "Show HN:..." for any open source projects. If the project "sticks", it will get a lot of stars, but contribution may not be massive.

The only issue with that is, you may not feel passionate about the project at hand.

What is normally assumed is that a lot of OSS contribution is done by people who have a strong passion for the software they are contributing too.

It will be up to you at the end of the day.

Good luck!