On Sun, 1 Jun 2008, Jonathan Roberts wrote:
From where I sit, I think there are several people willing to help new
folks to the project. The problem is making sure the new contributors
know who to contact for help or those early questions new contributors
might have. So just a re-awareness of the Fedora Mentors project, the
effort to keep that page up to date and to make sure each SIG/Project
has a mentor representative would be a big step in the right direction.
Perhaps a revamp of the join.fp.o page? We can keep the cool icons etc,
but we could add more content that explains the process in general
terms, introduces the idea of mentors and points people to the list and
IRC for help?
I'm actually thinking of something a bit more proactive.
Imagine this scenario: the Mentors all belong to a queue attached to FAS2.
When a new member joins up in FAS2, rather than presenting a bunch of
lists, or content for them to read, the new Fedora member is greeted with
a question: "which of these Fedora activities interest you?" And then a
list of checkboxes. Web development. Software packaging. Evangelizing.
Documentation. Translation. Media distribution. Press relations.
Systems administration. And so on.
The user checks the boxes in question, and the Mentors receive an email.
"Achtung! There's a new contributor! Here's their email address! Bring
them home!"
Whereupon the mentor sends a friendly email, asks them if they're finding
everything okay, answers any questions they might have, and so on and so
forth. Immediately presenting as a friendly "face" who can answer any
question -- before they even have to ask for help.
Just thinking and talking. New contributors continue to be our lifeblood,
and we should treat them like gold at every opportunity. Karma gimmicks
are cool, but relationships make open source go 'round.
--g
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