Re: [Gnewsense-dev] Potential new supporter

[Sam Geeraerts]

Op Mon, 24 Mar 2014 19:50:43 -0400
schreef George Roberge <address@hidden>:

> I did spend some time on the site and Savannah, and created accounts
> on both.  I'll tell you that looking over the project was a little 
> intimidating (since I'm not a coder), but I did see a few places
> where I could help out with some of the perhaps more tedious jobs.
> There are plenty of teams on the site, and it appears that there's
> plenty to do.

The project's not meant to be intimidating, but I can understand if it
looks like our attention is mainly on code. Other areas need help too.

> One thing first: I saw on Savannah that before jumping into asking 
> permission to be added to a project, that the "applicant" should
> reach the project leader(s) through another means, like the project's
> mailing list.  So I imagine that this would be the place to talk to
> someone?

Yes.

> And this may be a dumb question, but given the need for
> coders, is there honestly a point for a non-coding person at this
> time?

Your written English skills could help with cleaning up the wiki. There
are more than a few outdated pages on it [1]. Some should be
updated/rewritten, some should be deleted. The better the website is
written, the more attractive and useful it is to users.

You also mentioned advocacy. I would like it if gNewSense would be
known not just among software freedom enthusiasts, but also with people
outside that community that might be interested. Hanging out with those
crowds and dropping names is a good start. I'm open to other
suggestions (for identifying target groups and ways to reach out to
them).

> And this may be a dumb question, but given the need for coders, is
> there honestly a point for a non-coding person at this time?  I don't
> want to jump in and start doing things that aren't particularly
> useful to anyone at this point, and have anyone thinking, "Oh, yay,
> thank you for doing that thing...that really doesn't serve any
> purpose at this point...."

You're welcome to contribute in any way you see fit, keeping in mind
that our focus is software freedom and that available man-hours in the
team are limited.

> Silly question maybe, but I have zero experience joining something
> like this.  I'm a good independent learner, but I'm not familiar with
> "the system" here.

Not much of a system, really. Showing initiative and asking for help
when you need it should get you a long way.

[1] http://www.gnewsense.org/CategoryOutdated