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> Or find some students that want to break into open source and have them be 1st level triage for your issues. Which I had offered as a solution in the thread,

> Or find some students that want to break into open source and have them be 1st level triage for your issues. Which I had offered as a solution in the thread, but was ultimately shot down with "It's 2016, we have bots that can do that." Clearly the bots don't work if it's still a problem.

bphogan 11y ago
Yup. My students are always asking how they can get involved in open source....
- joshmanders 11y ago
  Lots of talk around the OSS world on how to "get involved with open source" and this is a great solution to both problems. Newbies can start getting involved by triaging issues, and projects can alleviate some of the pains by letting them do it. It's a win win.
  - maaku 11y ago
    As long as the newbie doesn't walk away feeling like they've been shunted into the kindergarten playpen. But so long as you get ahead of that expectation mis-match, it actually is a really good way to get to know both a project and its surrounding development culture.
    - OJFord 11y ago
      I'm a student, I don't think it would feel like that at all (as long as the attitude of other team members didn't make it so). There have been days where I've actively searched for some OSS project that is accessible enough for me to work on - because usually the ideas I have myself are things I'm not capable of! Or I just need to think more about how to get started, and when in this mood I'd rather just get hacking on someone else's project's issue. My point is, issue triaging could be a great way to learn the ropes of a project (and get to know the team a bit), and you'd probably find yourself occasionally (then gradually more often) thinking "hey, actually I reckon I can have a crack at this myself". That'd be really satisfying for a never-contributed-before fresher.
fweespeech 11y ago
To be honest, this is a problem that has to be solved by cash/donations. 1st level triage for issues could be done by developer in the Phillipines on Upwork for like $5-10/hr. The problem really is they've hit a scale where they need a human CSR to handle their 1st level triage but they don't have the cash to pay one. Volunteers find the work mind numbing enough they refuse to do it for long generally.
- bphogan 11y ago
  Yes. I agree. Cash would solve this. All the people making money on books about ES6 could kick in. All the folks making screencasts could kick in. All the companies making money on open-source could kick in. And volunteers? They should cycle out and move up into more interesting work, making room for new people to do that. That's what I was thinking.
  - syntheticnature 11y ago
    All these folks could kick in, but will they? Not that I'm saying that volunteers are better -- they asked, no one stepped up, which means to me that volunteers are a non-starter.
    - fweespeech 11y ago
      It's in their best interest to. If the cow you milk dies through neglect, you have to find another.
- dec0dedab0de 11y ago
  That might encourage false reports to keep the work available. It is a good idea though.
jarek 11y ago
Do any students/newbies actually want to triage issues, or is it just something the old hands thought up and think might work nicely?
- op00to 11y ago
  I triage where possible in projects that are important to me, because when I have a problem, I expect my issue to be triaged in return. I'm not a student/newbie, but I'm not a coder and still desire to contribute where I can.
- bphogan 11y ago
  Many 1st semester students want to get involved and can't code yet. And I know they'd jump at this.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - jarek 11y ago
    How many have you suggested volunteer, and what were their thoughts after a semester?
    - bphogan 11y ago
      About 60 a semester. Number that attempt to get involved is unknown. I require 1st semester students to push final projects to Github public repositories so they learn Git. Biggest problem is that they can't program very well yet but want to contribute. So any low-hanging fruit is welcome, really.
      - newjersey 11y ago
        I've been working as a programmer for a few years and I can't program very well. I can get things done but it takes longer as I'm constantly distracting myself. I want to contribute as well, particularly with compiling binaries and easier stuff but I don't know where to start.

bphogan 11y ago

Yup. My students are always asking how they can get involved in open source....

joshmanders 11y ago
Lots of talk around the OSS world on how to "get involved with open source" and this is a great solution to both problems. Newbies can start getting involved by triaging issues, and projects can alleviate some of the pains by letting them do it. It's a win win.
- maaku 11y ago
  As long as the newbie doesn't walk away feeling like they've been shunted into the kindergarten playpen. But so long as you get ahead of that expectation mis-match, it actually is a really good way to get to know both a project and its surrounding development culture.
  - OJFord 11y ago
    I'm a student, I don't think it would feel like that at all (as long as the attitude of other team members didn't make it so). There have been days where I've actively searched for some OSS project that is accessible enough for me to work on - because usually the ideas I have myself are things I'm not capable of! Or I just need to think more about how to get started, and when in this mood I'd rather just get hacking on someone else's project's issue. My point is, issue triaging could be a great way to learn the ropes of a project (and get to know the team a bit), and you'd probably find yourself occasionally (then gradually more often) thinking "hey, actually I reckon I can have a crack at this myself". That'd be really satisfying for a never-contributed-before fresher.

fweespeech 11y ago

To be honest, this is a problem that has to be solved by cash/donations. 1st level triage for issues could be done by developer in the Phillipines on Upwork for like $5-10/hr. The problem really is they've hit a scale where they need a human CSR to handle their 1st level triage but they don't have the cash to pay one. Volunteers find the work mind numbing enough they refuse to do it for long generally.

bphogan 11y ago
Yes. I agree. Cash would solve this. All the people making money on books about ES6 could kick in. All the folks making screencasts could kick in. All the companies making money on open-source could kick in. And volunteers? They should cycle out and move up into more interesting work, making room for new people to do that. That's what I was thinking.
- syntheticnature 11y ago
  All these folks could kick in, but will they? Not that I'm saying that volunteers are better -- they asked, no one stepped up, which means to me that volunteers are a non-starter.
  - fweespeech 11y ago
    It's in their best interest to. If the cow you milk dies through neglect, you have to find another.
dec0dedab0de 11y ago
That might encourage false reports to keep the work available. It is a good idea though.

jarek 11y ago

Do any students/newbies actually want to triage issues, or is it just something the old hands thought up and think might work nicely?

op00to 11y ago
I triage where possible in projects that are important to me, because when I have a problem, I expect my issue to be triaged in return. I'm not a student/newbie, but I'm not a coder and still desire to contribute where I can.
bphogan 11y ago
Many 1st semester students want to get involved and can't code yet. And I know they'd jump at this.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- jarek 11y ago
  How many have you suggested volunteer, and what were their thoughts after a semester?
  - bphogan 11y ago
    About 60 a semester. Number that attempt to get involved is unknown. I require 1st semester students to push final projects to Github public repositories so they learn Git. Biggest problem is that they can't program very well yet but want to contribute. So any low-hanging fruit is welcome, really.
    - newjersey 11y ago
      I've been working as a programmer for a few years and I can't program very well. I can get things done but it takes longer as I'm constantly distracting myself. I want to contribute as well, particularly with compiling binaries and easier stuff but I don't know where to start.