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I added one of my projects (https://github.com/akavel/rsrc https://github.com/akavel/rsrc) some time ago, when codeshelter was announced for the first time; it

by akavel 7y ago

I added one of my projects (https://github.com/akavel/rsrc https://github.com/akavel/rsrc) some time ago, when codeshelter was announced for the first time; it has a "maintainer" listed; but noone seemed to either contact me or do anything with the repo, ever. It feels weird to me. I can understand that there's no requirement for them to do something; but it still feels weird as it is now — someone seems to claim to (want to?) be a contributor, but didn't seem to even try and reach out to me. Thinking out loud, maybe there could be some form, where if a candidate maintainer clicks the button to "join a project" (or whatever), they'd have to compose some message that would be sent to the owner, to at least break some first ice and initiate some contact? I don't know what's going on with the person. If there was an easy way, I would be happy to reach out to them and ask them, like, "hey, howdy'a doing?" Also, it would be nice if I was sent an email with a notification when someone "claims" my project, and with a chance to connect with them. Maybe you could try and start contacting people to see how is this working, and if not, to try and dig down on the underlying reasons? maybe this could lead to some now ideas for improvements and helping people work together?

StavrosK 7y ago
Thanks for the feedback! This was probably later than when you added the project, but we added a "note to maintainers" feature: https://gitlab.com/codeshelter/note-to-maintainers https://gitlab.com/codeshelter/note-to-maintainers It's basically a text file where you describe how you want future maintainers to handle the project, give instructions, caveats, etc (whatever you want, basically). I assume this specific maintainer situation happened because it's easy to click a button and be added to the project, so maybe the maintainer was planning to do something but didn't get around to it, or something similar. About the communication, you're right, we encourage maintainers and authors to join our chat server (https://codeshelter.zulipchat.com/ https://codeshelter.zulipchat.com/) so they can be in contact. Code Shelter was built with more of a long-term prospect in mind (obviously we can't guarantee that we'll find you a maintainer right away), maybe I should amend the copy to manage peoples' expectations, because I hear from a lot of people that they expected someone to pick up their project and were disappointed when it didn't happen.
- akavel 7y ago
  That's... something. But it still feels very passive. What do you think about the ideas I listed in the post above? I assume you know who are the people on both sides, and that you have their emails, so I'd guess you're in a good position to actively facilitate communication, no? Is there a way how I could actively reach out to a person that's listed as a maintainer on my project? Why not add a form that would let me do that? even without necessarily revealing their email, if they don't want to? though to tell the truth, why wouldn't they want to, if they claim to want to contribute? Similarly, how about a notification, so that I learn that someone joined my project, with their email so that I can reach out with a welcome? why passive encouragement to a chat server instead of an active facilitation of first contact over email?
  - StavrosK 7y ago
    Oh, I definitely agree with you that communication should be more active, it's just that right now this is more left to the new maintainer to do. On Github, everyone's email is public anyway, so the new maintainer could message the old one. I don't think Github/Gitlab provide any automated way to send people messages (short of creating a new issue and mentioning people). Actually, creating an issue on a maintainer joining might be a good idea, I will look into it. Other than that, we have to take many scenarios into account (many people don't want to talk to the new maintainer, for example, because the project is completely abandoned). We should definitely add something, though. I'll see if we can automatically add issues that will be something like "Introduce yourself" with a body of "Hello @maintainer1, @maintainer2! @newmaintainer just joined, please say hi". I have opened an issue if you want to contribute: https://gitlab.com/codeshelter/codeshelter-web/issues/34 https://gitlab.com/codeshelter/codeshelter-web/issues/34
    - akavel 7y ago
      Thanks! I'd say "you're welcome to say hi" sounds softer than "please say hi", but other than that, sounds good to me!
      - 7y ago

by akavel 7y ago

StavrosK 7y ago

Thanks for the feedback! This was probably later than when you added the project, but we added a "note to maintainers" feature: https://gitlab.com/codeshelter/note-to-maintainers https://gitlab.com/codeshelter/note-to-maintainers It's basically a text file where you describe how you want future maintainers to handle the project, give instructions, caveats, etc (whatever you want, basically). I assume this specific maintainer situation happened because it's easy to click a button and be added to the project, so maybe the maintainer was planning to do something but didn't get around to it, or something similar. About the communication, you're right, we encourage maintainers and authors to join our chat server (https://codeshelter.zulipchat.com/ https://codeshelter.zulipchat.com/) so they can be in contact. Code Shelter was built with more of a long-term prospect in mind (obviously we can't guarantee that we'll find you a maintainer right away), maybe I should amend the copy to manage peoples' expectations, because I hear from a lot of people that they expected someone to pick up their project and were disappointed when it didn't happen.

akavel 7y ago
That's... something. But it still feels very passive. What do you think about the ideas I listed in the post above? I assume you know who are the people on both sides, and that you have their emails, so I'd guess you're in a good position to actively facilitate communication, no? Is there a way how I could actively reach out to a person that's listed as a maintainer on my project? Why not add a form that would let me do that? even without necessarily revealing their email, if they don't want to? though to tell the truth, why wouldn't they want to, if they claim to want to contribute? Similarly, how about a notification, so that I learn that someone joined my project, with their email so that I can reach out with a welcome? why passive encouragement to a chat server instead of an active facilitation of first contact over email?
- StavrosK 7y ago
  Oh, I definitely agree with you that communication should be more active, it's just that right now this is more left to the new maintainer to do. On Github, everyone's email is public anyway, so the new maintainer could message the old one. I don't think Github/Gitlab provide any automated way to send people messages (short of creating a new issue and mentioning people). Actually, creating an issue on a maintainer joining might be a good idea, I will look into it. Other than that, we have to take many scenarios into account (many people don't want to talk to the new maintainer, for example, because the project is completely abandoned). We should definitely add something, though. I'll see if we can automatically add issues that will be something like "Introduce yourself" with a body of "Hello @maintainer1, @maintainer2! @newmaintainer just joined, please say hi". I have opened an issue if you want to contribute: https://gitlab.com/codeshelter/codeshelter-web/issues/34 https://gitlab.com/codeshelter/codeshelter-web/issues/34
  - akavel 7y ago
    Thanks! I'd say "you're welcome to say hi" sounds softer than "please say hi", but other than that, sounds good to me!
    - 7y ago