Comments on: Making Small Contributions Simple http://yokozar.org/blog/archives/89 A blog about Ubuntu, Wine, and the occasional other interest Sat, 27 Feb 2010 01:59:23 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: kathy http://yokozar.org/blog/archives/89/comment-page-1#comment-4425 kathy Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:50:33 +0000 http://yokozar.org/blog/?p=89#comment-4425 well, i'm gonna install wine on a mac, i needed it to run a library windows based, I'm not familiar with wine, since i switch from pc to mac, not long ago, ether am i a computer "savVy" so i hope, and will test your wine application. now, i understand you have two versions, i understand the first version is better? or do i need to install the latest version? as you can read, dont know much about programs and stuff... but trying to learn as much possible, now if you can i would love to know what to do in this case. thank you kb well, i’m gonna install wine on a mac, i needed it to run a library windows based, I’m not familiar with wine, since i switch from pc to mac, not long ago, ether am i a computer “savVy” so i hope, and will test your wine application.

now, i understand you have two versions, i understand the first version is better? or do i need to install the latest version?
as you can read, dont know much about programs and stuff…

but trying to learn as much possible, now if you can i would love to know what to do in this case.

thank you
kb

]]> By: YokoZar http://yokozar.org/blog/archives/89/comment-page-1#comment-364 YokoZar Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:24:12 +0000 http://yokozar.org/blog/?p=89#comment-364 jmarsden, that is of course true, but these tags are not for the experienced sysadmin. Needs-artwork is a tag for artists, who so far haven't been using launchpad to find places where they can jump in and contribute. If you're a packager, or a bug triager, or even and experienced sysadmin you can likely navigate the bug system fairly well; you may, however, be unable to create your own art. That's where the tags come in - they essentially say "help me out with this" so we can all work together more easily. If one person is taking care of the entire bug, then we hardly need tags at all. jmarsden, that is of course true, but these tags are not for the experienced sysadmin. Needs-artwork is a tag for artists, who so far haven’t been using launchpad to find places where they can jump in and contribute. If you’re a packager, or a bug triager, or even and experienced sysadmin you can likely navigate the bug system fairly well; you may, however, be unable to create your own art.

That’s where the tags come in – they essentially say “help me out with this” so we can all work together more easily. If one person is taking care of the entire bug, then we hardly need tags at all.

]]> By: jmarsden http://yokozar.org/blog/archives/89/comment-page-1#comment-363 jmarsden Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:22:21 +0000 http://yokozar.org/blog/?p=89#comment-363 The suggested tags are only likely to be useful if there are a significant number of bugs reported in LP that each tag applies to. I've yet to come across a bug that would be considered a "needs-sound" bug, but that's just anecdotal. Did anyone try taking a random sample of a few hundred bugs on LP and determining which of these needs-* tags would apply? If it ends up with 98% of the sample being either a bug report to which none of these tags apply (perhaps because it can't be reproduced?) or a bug which could be tagged "needs-coding", then I suspect the suggested tagging scheme is not likely to produce the hoped-for results. My instinct is that there will be relatively few LP bug reports in the "needs-sound" and "needs-artwork" categories. Most LP bug reports I see either need to be triaged and confirmed, or are confirmed and need coding and/or packaging work to fix them. On a related note: There are many bug reports that need confirming -- they need someone to reproduce them, and then clearly document the exact set of steps needed to reproduce them. Many bugs in the new, incomplete, or triaged states could use this kind of help. It may not give the contributor who confirms them the ability to say "my artwork is in Ubuntu" or "my sound is in Ubuntu", but such bug confirmation is very useful indeed. If a "needs-confirmation" tag would help encourage people to confirm such bugs, by all means let's add one. My personal experience in getting started was/is that the #ubuntu-motu IRC channel is full of helpful and friendly MOTUs; if you're willing to learn Ubuntu packaging, they are very willing to help you as you learn. #ubuntu-bugs is similarly friendly for those wanting to learn bug triage. There is a mentoring program for wannabe MOTUs, too. I used the "bitesize" tag (which I discovered while reading the Ubuntu wiki about bug triage) to get me a list of (supposedly) smaller items I could work on, to get started. I'm not sure further subdivision into artwork/sound/code would have been helpful to me at that stage. Going from "here is my artwork" (or sound, or man page wording change, or three-line patch to a shell script, or whatever) to "here is a debdiff that adds my artwork/sound/whatever to this package" is a *huge* step forward in getting a bug closed, and is not something that is out of reach for an experienced sysadmin, IMO. The suggested tags are only likely to be useful if there are a significant number of bugs reported in LP that each tag applies to. I’ve yet to come across a bug that would be considered a “needs-sound” bug, but that’s just anecdotal.

Did anyone try taking a random sample of a few hundred bugs on LP and determining which of these needs-* tags would apply? If it ends up with 98% of the sample being either a bug report to which none of these tags apply (perhaps because it can’t be reproduced?) or a bug which could be tagged “needs-coding”, then I suspect the suggested tagging scheme is not likely to produce the hoped-for results.

My instinct is that there will be relatively few LP bug reports in the “needs-sound” and “needs-artwork” categories. Most LP bug reports I see either need to be triaged and confirmed, or are confirmed and need coding and/or packaging work to fix them.

On a related note: There are many bug reports that need confirming — they need someone to reproduce them, and then clearly document the exact set of steps needed to reproduce them. Many bugs in the new, incomplete, or triaged states could use this kind of help. It may not give the contributor who confirms them the ability to say “my artwork is in Ubuntu” or “my sound is in Ubuntu”, but such bug confirmation is very useful indeed. If a “needs-confirmation” tag would help encourage people to confirm such bugs, by all means let’s add one.

My personal experience in getting started was/is that the #ubuntu-motu IRC channel is full of helpful and friendly MOTUs; if you’re willing to learn Ubuntu packaging, they are very willing to help you as you learn. #ubuntu-bugs is similarly friendly for those wanting to learn bug triage. There is a mentoring program for wannabe MOTUs, too.

I used the “bitesize” tag (which I discovered while reading the Ubuntu wiki about bug triage) to get me a list of (supposedly) smaller items I could work on, to get started. I’m not sure further subdivision into artwork/sound/code would have been helpful to me at that stage. Going from “here is my artwork” (or sound, or man page wording change, or three-line patch to a shell script, or whatever) to “here is a debdiff that adds my artwork/sound/whatever to this package” is a *huge* step forward in getting a bug closed, and is not something that is out of reach for an experienced sysadmin, IMO.

]]> By: phiphi http://yokozar.org/blog/archives/89/comment-page-1#comment-270 phiphi Sun, 14 Jun 2009 22:17:42 +0000 http://yokozar.org/blog/?p=89#comment-270 Shouldn't there also be a needs-discussion, ideas, or needs-decision ? That's probably where i could contribute most. and like that you could get more (user-)response, new approaches, methods. Because that would take a part off the shoulders of the coders. Brainstorm has something of this, but I stopped contributing there, as it seemed not to reach a person who will take care of this. Where's the (back-)linking from Launchpad to Brainstorm? Or are there Forums where such things are discussed? Again, there's a lack of linking to launchpad and it's not accessible, if you don't know what you actually do want. Shouldn’t there also be a needs-discussion, ideas, or needs-decision ?

That’s probably where i could contribute most. and like that you could get more (user-)response, new approaches, methods. Because that would take a part off the shoulders of the coders.

Brainstorm has something of this, but I stopped contributing there, as it seemed not to reach a person who will take care of this.
Where’s the (back-)linking from Launchpad to Brainstorm?

Or are there Forums where such things are discussed? Again, there’s a lack of linking to launchpad and it’s not accessible, if you don’t know what you actually do want.

]]> By: Eric Pritchett http://yokozar.org/blog/archives/89/comment-page-1#comment-256 Eric Pritchett Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:45:09 +0000 http://yokozar.org/blog/?p=89#comment-256 Heh, I'm in the same situation as Casey. Long time Ubuntu user and IT admin. I couldn't agree more Scott and I think you hit the nail on the head. I often feel like people miss the point when it comes to getting people to contribute and they try to make the process as automated as possible thinking it will be easier, but I think the better way is to get people involved as much as possible to make the process easy, fun and enjoyable. I think it would be great if Ubuntu had a Contributor Mentoring Program where lets say at the beginning of every month people could sign up and get mentored for a month, so users can talk and ask questions, to people get to know other new contributors, learn the ropes and feel welcomed. If there was a human face instantly to contributing with real people and "arms" reaching to new contributors out I think we would get much more contributors. Heh, I’m in the same situation as Casey. Long time Ubuntu user and IT admin. I couldn’t agree more Scott and I think you hit the nail on the head. I often feel like people miss the point when it comes to getting people to contribute and they try to make the process as automated as possible thinking it will be easier, but I think the better way is to get people involved as much as possible to make the process easy, fun and enjoyable. I think it would be great if Ubuntu had a Contributor Mentoring Program where lets say at the beginning of every month people could sign up and get mentored for a month, so users can talk and ask questions, to people get to know other new contributors, learn the ropes and feel welcomed. If there was a human face instantly to contributing with real people and “arms” reaching to new contributors out I think we would get much more contributors.

]]> By: Casey http://yokozar.org/blog/archives/89/comment-page-1#comment-255 Casey Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:43:08 +0000 http://yokozar.org/blog/?p=89#comment-255 As a non-developer LONG time Ubuntu supporter/user (I'm a sys admin....who cares for the feeding and handling of devs hardware -grin) I'd LOVE to see the tags implemented. As it is I occasionally surf launchpad to see if there's something I might be able to assist with, but, egads pages on pages on pages of stuff without a simple way to sort for just the things you listed. Hope something will come of this, as its my bet that some of us non-code jockeys could help clean up a bunch of the gunk currently cluttering the 'pad'. :) As a non-developer LONG time Ubuntu supporter/user (I’m a sys admin….who cares for the feeding and handling of devs hardware -grin) I’d LOVE to see the tags implemented. As it is I occasionally surf launchpad to see if there’s something I might be able to assist with, but, egads pages on pages on pages of stuff without a simple way to sort for just the things you listed.

Hope something will come of this, as its my bet that some of us non-code jockeys could help clean up a bunch of the gunk currently cluttering the ‘pad’. :)

]]> By: anotherubuntu.blogspot.com/ http://yokozar.org/blog/archives/89/comment-page-1#comment-254 anotherubuntu.blogspot.com/ Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:00:20 +0000 http://yokozar.org/blog/?p=89#comment-254 Hopefully Ubuntu Wanted will make it easier for people can "meet". https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Website/Wanted Hopefully Ubuntu Wanted will make it easier for people can “meet”.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Website/Wanted

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