Hello Valorie, On 10/01/2015, at 1:56 PM, Valorie Zimmerman wrote: > Comment often heard: we've lost $person / we're missing people to > maintain/lead/do $project. This is understandable, and to be expected > in a large, mature project such as KDE. > > However, in #kde and #kde-devel IRC channels we have new people almost > daily trying to find some way to get involved with KDE. In an effort > to bring the solution and the problem together, at Akademy we > brainstormed and came up with the Mission forum [1]. > > What that forum needs is postings! When you as a devel are thinking > about giving up maintainership, please write a "Maintainer Wanted" > post. When fixing bugs, and seeing a valuable bit of code which needs > porting, please write that up and put it on the forum. Of course we > always need ideas for possible GSoC projects, and the forum is a good > place to post and develop those ideas. Naturally they will eventually > have to be moved to our GSoC docs, but they can be discussed and > refined on the forum.
Great idea! I think you should get it posted on kde-announce or somewhere where *everyone* in the KDE Community will see it, not just kde-core-devel. But ahem! Here is an immediate turnoff for newbies (or "old B"s like me… :-)). https://forum.kde.org/viewforum.php?f=291 says (in part): "Forum rules • You cannot post new topics in this forum • You cannot reply to topics in this forum • You cannot edit your posts in this forum • You cannot delete your posts in this forum" So what CAN I do? This needs major re-phrasing --- hopefully as positives rather than negatives. Being a rebellious "old B", I clicked the "New Topic" button anyway… :-) Then I was greeted with an invitation to log in with my KDE Identity. Luckily, I have one. Otherwise, I would have to register a new KDE Identity in order to reply, for example, to a "maintainer wanted" post(?) Do you want the KDE Identity service to accumulate newbies and casual enquirers? Also the registration requirement might make a newbie think he/she had to JOIN KDE (right now), when he/she is just following up an initial interest and wants to know more. Another possible turnoff. Speaking for myself, I almost invariably click away from sites that want you to register, unless I am really, really interested. > Needed documentation, internationalization, translation, artwork, > promo, and web work are also suitable. If you have written a "help > wanted" blog or ML post in the past, dig it out and post it on the > forum. > > I know devels often don't like forums, but guess who does like them? > Beginners and people who are using search engines. We need these > people to join our community and start helping out. That will happen > when we ask in a public place, which is the forum. Maybe I sounded negative above, but I really would like to *use* a forum like this. I have five well-documented KDE Games to hand over to new maintainers and I am getting older every day… :-( All the best, Ian W. > 1. https://forum.kde.org/viewforum.php?f=291