Holes in KDE (fork of "Changes in Git Infra" thread)

[Ian Wadham]

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