Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Help Wanted Site for Free Software Projects

[Kees Epema]

Lots of free software projects these days are hosted on version control 
platforms like github.com for instance.
So I believe these platforms have already taken over the role of FSF in being a 
repository for free software projects.

Following this thread, I want to ask you all if you think FSF is able and of 
course willing to host such a project.

In my opinion FSF maybe have little resources for regaining the marketshare of 
github.com and other similar systems. 

Kind regards,
Kees Epema


On Tue, 4 Apr 2017 12:15:08 +0200
Nicolás A. Ortega <deathsbreed@themusicinnoise.net> wrote:

> I am unsure if this is the correct list to talk about this, but
> considering the description it's what made most sense.
> 
> Recently on #gnu (freenode) someone joined the channel looking for
> guidance. They were saying that they wanted to start contributing to a
> Free Software project, but they were having difficulty thinking of where
> to start. Of course, they were given the GNU Savannah 'Help Wanted'
> page, and told that they should find a software that they currently use
> that they would like to contribute to.
> 
> This kind of question arises every now and then on #fsf (freenode) as
> well, and even other channels. Someone is eager to help the community
> and contribute to a free software project, but does not know where to
> begin. And it's easy for us to say "find something you already use and
> contribute to it", however this is not as easy as we make it out to be.
> To begin with most people (as we know) run a large variety of software
> on their computers, many of which are complex and have a very large code
> base. What's more, we must all be familiar (through convincing our peers
> to use Free Software) that too many options is just as scary as too few.
> And even when they do try to find a project to get involved in the
> questions arise of "do I have the skills?", "where exactly do they need
> help?", "I don't have the time to contribute a lot, can I be a casual
> contributor?", etc. Yes, these are things that they could really just
> ask the maintainers of the project and the maintainer would be more than
> happy to show them the way, however for someone who is new to
> contributing to Free Software projects this isn't as obvious.
> 
> Something that I really liked when considering GNU Savannah for hosting
> one of my projects was that it had a 'Help Wanted' page (which I
> mentioned above). To me that is a great feature that allows new
> contributors to find a project that is looking for help, and it even
> answers a lot of the questions that I mentioned above that go through
> the newcomer's mind ("do I have the skills?", mostly). However, GNU
> Savannah has two flaws in this regard: 1. It's only for projects hosted
> on GNU Savannah, other projects hosted elsewhere should also be able to
> ask for contributors, 2. A lot of the information on GNU Savannah's
> 'Help Wanted' page is outdated.
> 
> Therefore I would suggest creating a site (it would be nice if it were
> linked to by the FSF) where any Free Software project can post a notice
> asking for help (similar to what GNU Savannah has) and visitors can
> respond. However, unlike GNU Savannah there should be two improvements
> (at least): 1. To avoid a bunch of outdated information these posts
> should be renewed every so often (making it easy, like responding to an
> e-mail for renewal, may be a good idea), 2. These posts should contain
> visible contact information, the visitor should not need to create an
> account in order to see the contact information (believe it or not
> creating accounts discourages many people).
> 
> Things like this already exist, I know, however they tend to be tied to
> a certain repository host, overflowing with outdated information, or in
> general simply not given the attention they need to thrive and be a
> hot-spot for contributors to find projects. I think that with the FSF
> behind such a project it would help the Free Software community to take
> advantage of all of these people who are eager to contribute but trying
> to find a good place to start.
> 
> -- 
> Nicolás A. Ortega (Deathsbreed)
> https://themusicinnoise.net/
> http://uk7ewohr7xpjuaca.onion/
> Public PGP Key:
> https://themusicinnoise.net/deathsbreed@themusicinnoise.net_pub.asc
> http://uk7ewohr7xpjuaca.onion/deathsbreed@themusicinnoise.net_pub.asc


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