I think that's a brilliant idea.  You're right that we have written bits

along these lines in the past, which could be extracted, dusted off, and
polished to be more digestible to a more modern audience.

You're right that there's probably a few different "types" of people so
maybe a few different pages to message in different ways would make
sense.  I.e. one that talks to people who could get into coding work
might focus on explaining branches and patch contributions, whereas
another page might come from the angle of someone who isn't AT ALL
interested in coding and instead just address good non-coding ways to
contribute.  Another one geared for translators, another maybe for
evangelists, yet another specifically focused on usability testing.
Or something like that.

Would you like to take a shot at extracting the existing text and
roughing it into a more useful shape?  I think I could contribute
verbage to the pages, or link in someone to help.

Bryce

__________________________________________________

Yeah sure, as long as we're waiting for OSUOSL, I have time to spare.  I'll have to look in the FAQ to see what's left still there.  Because now that I think of it, a lot of it has been brought to the Contribute page already, and some on the Promote page.

https://inkscape.org/en/contribute/
https://inkscape.org/en/contribute/promote/

Should we split those sections up, and add more to them?  I think what might be missing, to address this concern, is language that perhaps is more inviting (and maybe more warm and fuzzy?) as opposed to strictly informational.

I know we had a report recently, where someone thought the info about helping with the website should be on the Contribute page, rather than Promote.  I originally put it on Promote, because I was thinking that's what the website does, is promote Inkscape.  Plus, it made a way to break into 2 pages evenly, while all on the same page, it's too long.

Anyway, maybe there's a better way to organize all that?

Ok, the only thing left in the FAQ is this:

https://inkscape.org/en/learn/faq/#how-communicate-effectively-throughout-inkscape-community-and-avoid-causing-flamewar

which I deliberately left there, thinking it should probably be deleted, but not wanting to make that decision alone.  I think we can definitely use that first paragraph. And maybe some other parts too?  Since we have the CoC, we can probably lose the flamewar part.

Hhmm....I'm thinking of an introduction to the Contribute page, which contains most of that info.  Section title "So, You Want to Contribute to Inkscape? Here's how to get started"  More warm and fuzzy, but maybe too corny?

C R, jump in with comments too :-)

All best,
brynn
PS - another thought - Maybe the CoC could have some language for bringing new people in without saying "patches welcome"?

-----Original Message----- From: Bryce Harrington
Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2017 7:51 PM
To: brynn
Cc: C R ; inkscape-devel

Subject: Re: [Inkscape-devel] User Involvement Was: Post-Mortum: Line heightbug

On Sun, Jan 22, 2017 at 08:50:49AM -0700, brynn wrote:

>"Patches welcome" has become a flippant and dismissive way to say,
>"well, fix it yourself".

Most of my experience helping Inkscape users is in forums (approx 8
years), as opposed to the mailing list (approx 2 or 3 years).  I've
never seen this suggested in a flippant or dismissive way.

I could see a webpage....or a section of a webpage, which has kind
of a pitch or invitation.  Without looking, I don't remember
specifics, but I think parts of the faq (user faq on the website)
already do this.  So it could be made into a page or section of a
page.  Since people have all different kind of issues, we couldn't
provide the support info.  But it could include generalized support
info, along with everything else I mentioned above.  And then when
we find ourselves thinking "patches welcome", we could link to it,
rather than type it all out, every time.

Or would that be too impersonal?  If the Inkscape project is known
for being a friendly community (as someone said earlier) it could be
written in sort of a warm, fuzzy way.....if that would help?  Just a
thought :-)

I think that's a brilliant idea.  You're right that we have written bits
along these lines in the past, which could be extracted, dusted off, and
polished to be more digestible to a more modern audience.

You're right that there's probably a few different "types" of people so
maybe a few different pages to message in different ways would make
sense.  I.e. one that talks to people who could get into coding work
might focus on explaining branches and patch contributions, whereas
another page might come from the angle of someone who isn't AT ALL
interested in coding and instead just address good non-coding ways to
contribute.  Another one geared for translators, another maybe for
evangelists, yet another specifically focused on usability testing.
Or something like that.

Would you like to take a shot at extracting the existing text and
roughing it into a more useful shape?  I think I could contribute
verbage to the pages, or link in someone to help.

Bryce