9 ms·

Github needs a new button

126 points by joelg236 13y ago

arcameron 13y ago
Check out https://waffle.io/ https://waffle.io/ Gives people who come to your repo a good idea of the progress of various issues, I've found it to be somewhat useful
- mietek 13y ago
  Awesome, and just in time to help my team. Thanks!
- swanson 13y ago
  That actually looks pretty promising - the biggest thing that I've seen that drives usage on GitHub is README badges. It sounds silly, right? Just a badge? But look at Travis, Code Climate, Gemnasium, etc. You see those badges on a project and eventually you start adding them to your own projects and they spread across a site filled with highly qualified leads (developers for your developer-centric service). The first code review tool to make a badge and get a handful of Ruby projects to use it is going to really take off.
- wasd 13y ago
  This seems really, really useful. Is this kanban[1] in the form of a web app? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban
GhotiFish 13y ago
This is a fantastic idea. There are some projects I'd like to help with, but issues that crop up often require way more in depth knowledge. Other areas I can't help but feel I'd need the authors permission to really mess with a section. Am I allowed to clean this up? Saying to the repo owner "I'm ready to work, met something out to me" would be great!
gabrielrotbart 13y ago
Check out: http://www.codetriage.com/ http://www.codetriage.com/
- joelg236 13y ago
  That looks like a really helpful site. It solves my first problem well.
- codyb 13y ago
  "A waffle is like a pancake with a syrup trap." - Mitch Hedburg Props to them for the Hedburg quote. Was listening to that CD of his stand up (although, those jokes were for the CD, and maybe he'd done it elsewhere as well) just the other day. The site and concept look pretty cool too.
- qznc 13y ago
  Bug triaging is a great way to contribute for people who can not (yet) code. Nice site!
joeblau 13y ago
One thing I've found is that there is a lot of independence on GitHub. My immediate assumption if I see a project public project on GitHub is that the owner is saying "I'm ready and willing to accept help." The challenge of not knowing where to start is something different. A lot of projects can be complicated (D3.js comes to mind). If you don't have a really good grasp on a few very key disciplines in math then honestly, before you contribute to D3, you should brush up on that. The system is self regulating in a sense where you have to know enough about the subject to contribute. Maybe, there should be a section that people add to their README.md that explain what you need to know before you start digging into a project along with a project goal. I know that for my project[1], I want to create an authoritative .gitignore database, but I'm not really clear on that being my goal nor am I clear on where to add your new files. All of the contributors to my repo have figured it out though without me really telling them anything. [1] - https://github.com/joeblau/gitignore.io https://github.com/joeblau/gitignore.io
- tyre 13y ago
  > All of the contributors to my repo have figured it out though without me really telling them anything. It is also true that everyone who didn't figure it out, did not contribute. This is a much bigger problem. Not specific to your project, more of an issue at large, but saying that '100% of people who contributed figured out how to contribute' isn't a grate benchmark for success.
  - joeblau 13y ago
    It's not a benchmark for success and I'm going to make a change tomorrow to my repo that lets other know what they can do to contribute. What I don't think is good is people that don't understand what's going on making pull requests when they don't see the vision of the project. So far I have not gotten any of those which tells me that everyone who is making pull requests understands what the point of gitignore.io is.
Siecje 13y ago
Solving pain points is a good place to start. I've been using Ninja IDE and going to start contributing to it.
apaprocki 13y ago
GitHub already made this easier, but I feel like they just aren't pushing it in front of everyone early enough. They added support for the CONTRIBUTING/CONTRIBUTING.md file[1], but it is only displayed when opening up an issue or pull request. I think all they would really need to do is advertise projects which have a properly set up file while browsing, similar to how README files are already displayed. If a person wants to contribute, telling them how to contribute only after opening up an issue/PR is a bit late, no? [1] https://github.com/blog/1184-contributing-guidelines https://github.com/blog/1184-contributing-guidelines
- wasd 13y ago
  It seems like contriubtion guidelines aren't necessarily what the author is pushing. AFIK, this wouldn't help new developers get up to speed with the code base.
  - taproot 13y ago
    Well it would if owners set up their readme / contrib pages with a good overview of - "getting started as a developer" - "this is how this works" - "new developers should start reading here, browse here, and ignore this until later" style info. I think this is what the AP was bringing up. And it is what was being discussed in the blog post. Lowering the barrier to entry.
egor83 13y ago
http://openhatch.org/ http://openhatch.org/ tries to solve exactly this problem: they're working to bring in more people into OSS, so they pay special attention to make it easy for new programmers (or even non-programmers) to find a good match and start contributing. On top of just using the site, you could also chat with them about the problem in general - they're very open and friendly.
bobbles 13y ago
Personally I'd be more able to help out with a lot of projects from a documentation / training / support POV, github isnt really designed for that kind of thing, but it would be awesome if there was some kind of profile page where people could contribute to FAQs, How Tos, etc
thauck 13y ago
A few projects now have a "good as a first PR" tag for issues... This is great for helping people get started.
- saamm 13y ago
  Really? I don't think I've seen that before, but that sounds perfect for me. Do you have any advice on how to find such issues?
  - voltagex_ 13y ago
    Some projects that have gone through the GSoC process have triaged bugs/features like this. I'm trying to remember them now - blame Monday. http://fedoraproject.org/join-fedora http://fedoraproject.org/join-fedora is pretty much the best "How to Contribute" example I've seen.
    - saamm 13y ago
      Thank you!
- cstuder 13y ago
  One example is Composer with its "Easy Pick" tag: https://github.com/composer/composer/issues?labels=Easy+Pick&state=open https://github.com/composer/composer/issues?labels=Easy+Pick...
- qznc 13y ago
  I think this approach is much better than a generic "I want to contribute" button. Puts the burden on the newbie. Maybe there should be a standard tag? Similiar to versioning http://semver.org/ http://semver.org/
hayksaakian 13y ago
The biggest gap is documentation. If you have a strong grasp of the project, you already understand pull requests. The best thing newbies can do is expand and clarify the docs.
- staticfish 13y ago
  that's not really a solution to the problem of "I need things done in my app", or the contributors question of "what needs doing here?".
- staticfish 13y ago
  that's not really a solution to the problem of "I need things done in my app", or the contributors question of "what needs doing here?".
felipelalli 13y ago
No one "wants" to contribute. They just contribute. :)
krebby 13y ago
24 Pull Requests[0] was launched during Christmastime, and was a great resource for finding projects in need and posting my own. I only wish it were available year-round. Anyone want to pick up the torch here? [0] http://24pullrequests.com/ http://24pullrequests.com/
losethos 13y ago
TempleOS is basically done, but I silence the wise guys saying improve it, but don't increase line count. God says... C:\TAD\Text\BIBLE.TXT of kindness. 31:27 She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. 31:28 Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. 31:29 Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. 31:30 Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised. 31:31 Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates. Ecclesiastes or
viraptor 13y ago
So github is turning into the old Source forge then? There was a page on there years ago where projects could advertise who are they looking for. I found a couple of projects that needed packagers this way and learned more about maintenance. I think it's a really good idea.
- troels 13y ago
  My first thought as well. It doesn't make it a bad idea at all. And the execution of it could be a lot better than Source Forge's was/is.
- viseztrance 13y ago
  I believe the page you are referring to is sf.net/people.
  - viraptor 13y ago
    Yes, that's it :) It's not linked from anywhere anymore, is it?
    - viseztrance 13y ago
      I don't know, wrote it from memory that's all.
pjscott 13y ago
I've found that the best way to contribute to most open source projects is to try to use them, and then fix whatever shortcomings become obvious. This only works for things that are fairly new, and have obvious problems, but those can be a lot of fun.
- shizzy0 13y ago
  This! You must become a user before you can become a contributor. Then the vacuous "What project can I contribute to?" question becomes more intelligible, "What software should I use?" That depends. What do you want to do?
dennybritz 13y ago
Funny how this is on the front page today ;) just yesterday I wrote a post about how it would be a good idea to quantify the importance of open issues, to encourage contributions. Check it out here: http://dennybritz.com/blog/2013/08/04/github-api-issue-analysis/ http://dennybritz.com/blog/2013/08/04/github-api-issue-analy... If someone wants to work on this together just shoot me a message!
mmahemoff 13y ago
GitHub could probably suggest projects automatically based on recent activity. ie find projects which have a good flow of recent activity and have accepted external pull requests, but aren't intimidatingly large.
shizzy0 13y ago
I strongly disagree. If you're a new developer looking to work on something, anything, completely indiscriminately then you're probably not ready to work on anything. The time required to contribute even on minimal issues is not insignificant. It requires learning at the very least what the project is, does, and moreover should do. I think the phase of "what should I work on?" is a fledging phase of developer development that one quickly overcomes and then becomes burdened by the vast opportunities that exist. I think erecting a sign/button/webpage that says, WORK ON $THIS, will do nothing to help it because the would-be contributor may have no interest in the project. Also, it may inhibit the formation of their taste. One must develop enough of an interest in and taste for software that they want to change some aspect of it; that's when an opportunity to contribute something valuable presents itself: "This would be better if..."
joeblau 13y ago
I just came across this. It looks like they have guidlines for contributing, but they are only acttivated when you open a pull request. https://github.com/blog/1184-contributing-guidelines https://github.com/blog/1184-contributing-guidelines

126 points by joelg236 13y ago

Check out https://waffle.io/ https://waffle.io/ Gives people who come to your repo a good idea of the progress of various issues, I've found it to be somewhat useful

mietek 13y ago
Awesome, and just in time to help my team. Thanks!
swanson 13y ago
That actually looks pretty promising - the biggest thing that I've seen that drives usage on GitHub is README badges. It sounds silly, right? Just a badge? But look at Travis, Code Climate, Gemnasium, etc. You see those badges on a project and eventually you start adding them to your own projects and they spread across a site filled with highly qualified leads (developers for your developer-centric service). The first code review tool to make a badge and get a handful of Ruby projects to use it is going to really take off.
wasd 13y ago
This seems really, really useful. Is this kanban[1] in the form of a web app? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban

GhotiFish 13y ago

This is a fantastic idea. There are some projects I'd like to help with, but issues that crop up often require way more in depth knowledge. Other areas I can't help but feel I'd need the authors permission to really mess with a section. Am I allowed to clean this up? Saying to the repo owner "I'm ready to work, met something out to me" would be great!

gabrielrotbart 13y ago

Check out: http://www.codetriage.com/ http://www.codetriage.com/

joelg236 13y ago
That looks like a really helpful site. It solves my first problem well.
codyb 13y ago
"A waffle is like a pancake with a syrup trap." - Mitch Hedburg Props to them for the Hedburg quote. Was listening to that CD of his stand up (although, those jokes were for the CD, and maybe he'd done it elsewhere as well) just the other day. The site and concept look pretty cool too.
qznc 13y ago
Bug triaging is a great way to contribute for people who can not (yet) code. Nice site!

joeblau 13y ago

One thing I've found is that there is a lot of independence on GitHub. My immediate assumption if I see a project public project on GitHub is that the owner is saying "I'm ready and willing to accept help." The challenge of not knowing where to start is something different. A lot of projects can be complicated (D3.js comes to mind). If you don't have a really good grasp on a few very key disciplines in math then honestly, before you contribute to D3, you should brush up on that. The system is self regulating in a sense where you have to know enough about the subject to contribute. Maybe, there should be a section that people add to their README.md that explain what you need to know before you start digging into a project along with a project goal. I know that for my project[1], I want to create an authoritative .gitignore database, but I'm not really clear on that being my goal nor am I clear on where to add your new files. All of the contributors to my repo have figured it out though without me really telling them anything. [1] - https://github.com/joeblau/gitignore.io https://github.com/joeblau/gitignore.io

tyre 13y ago
> All of the contributors to my repo have figured it out though without me really telling them anything. It is also true that everyone who didn't figure it out, did not contribute. This is a much bigger problem. Not specific to your project, more of an issue at large, but saying that '100% of people who contributed figured out how to contribute' isn't a grate benchmark for success.
- joeblau 13y ago
  It's not a benchmark for success and I'm going to make a change tomorrow to my repo that lets other know what they can do to contribute. What I don't think is good is people that don't understand what's going on making pull requests when they don't see the vision of the project. So far I have not gotten any of those which tells me that everyone who is making pull requests understands what the point of gitignore.io is.

Siecje 13y ago

Solving pain points is a good place to start. I've been using Ninja IDE and going to start contributing to it.

apaprocki 13y ago

GitHub already made this easier, but I feel like they just aren't pushing it in front of everyone early enough. They added support for the CONTRIBUTING/CONTRIBUTING.md file[1], but it is only displayed when opening up an issue or pull request. I think all they would really need to do is advertise projects which have a properly set up file while browsing, similar to how README files are already displayed. If a person wants to contribute, telling them how to contribute only after opening up an issue/PR is a bit late, no? [1] https://github.com/blog/1184-contributing-guidelines https://github.com/blog/1184-contributing-guidelines

wasd 13y ago
It seems like contriubtion guidelines aren't necessarily what the author is pushing. AFIK, this wouldn't help new developers get up to speed with the code base.
- taproot 13y ago
  Well it would if owners set up their readme / contrib pages with a good overview of - "getting started as a developer" - "this is how this works" - "new developers should start reading here, browse here, and ignore this until later" style info. I think this is what the AP was bringing up. And it is what was being discussed in the blog post. Lowering the barrier to entry.

egor83 13y ago

http://openhatch.org/ http://openhatch.org/ tries to solve exactly this problem: they're working to bring in more people into OSS, so they pay special attention to make it easy for new programmers (or even non-programmers) to find a good match and start contributing. On top of just using the site, you could also chat with them about the problem in general - they're very open and friendly.

bobbles 13y ago

Personally I'd be more able to help out with a lot of projects from a documentation / training / support POV, github isnt really designed for that kind of thing, but it would be awesome if there was some kind of profile page where people could contribute to FAQs, How Tos, etc

thauck 13y ago

A few projects now have a "good as a first PR" tag for issues... This is great for helping people get started.

saamm 13y ago
Really? I don't think I've seen that before, but that sounds perfect for me. Do you have any advice on how to find such issues?
- voltagex_ 13y ago
  Some projects that have gone through the GSoC process have triaged bugs/features like this. I'm trying to remember them now - blame Monday. http://fedoraproject.org/join-fedora http://fedoraproject.org/join-fedora is pretty much the best "How to Contribute" example I've seen.
  - saamm 13y ago
    Thank you!
cstuder 13y ago
One example is Composer with its "Easy Pick" tag: https://github.com/composer/composer/issues?labels=Easy+Pick&state=open https://github.com/composer/composer/issues?labels=Easy+Pick...
qznc 13y ago
I think this approach is much better than a generic "I want to contribute" button. Puts the burden on the newbie. Maybe there should be a standard tag? Similiar to versioning http://semver.org/ http://semver.org/

hayksaakian 13y ago

The biggest gap is documentation. If you have a strong grasp of the project, you already understand pull requests. The best thing newbies can do is expand and clarify the docs.

staticfish 13y ago
that's not really a solution to the problem of "I need things done in my app", or the contributors question of "what needs doing here?".
staticfish 13y ago
that's not really a solution to the problem of "I need things done in my app", or the contributors question of "what needs doing here?".

felipelalli 13y ago

No one "wants" to contribute. They just contribute. :)

krebby 13y ago

24 Pull Requests[0] was launched during Christmastime, and was a great resource for finding projects in need and posting my own. I only wish it were available year-round. Anyone want to pick up the torch here? [0] http://24pullrequests.com/ http://24pullrequests.com/

losethos 13y ago

TempleOS is basically done, but I silence the wise guys saying improve it, but don't increase line count. God says... C:\TAD\Text\BIBLE.TXT of kindness. 31:27 She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. 31:28 Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. 31:29 Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. 31:30 Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised. 31:31 Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates. Ecclesiastes or

viraptor 13y ago

So github is turning into the old Source forge then? There was a page on there years ago where projects could advertise who are they looking for. I found a couple of projects that needed packagers this way and learned more about maintenance. I think it's a really good idea.

troels 13y ago
My first thought as well. It doesn't make it a bad idea at all. And the execution of it could be a lot better than Source Forge's was/is.
viseztrance 13y ago
I believe the page you are referring to is sf.net/people.
- viraptor 13y ago
  Yes, that's it :) It's not linked from anywhere anymore, is it?
  - viseztrance 13y ago
    I don't know, wrote it from memory that's all.

pjscott 13y ago

I've found that the best way to contribute to most open source projects is to try to use them, and then fix whatever shortcomings become obvious. This only works for things that are fairly new, and have obvious problems, but those can be a lot of fun.

shizzy0 13y ago
This! You must become a user before you can become a contributor. Then the vacuous "What project can I contribute to?" question becomes more intelligible, "What software should I use?" That depends. What do you want to do?

dennybritz 13y ago

Funny how this is on the front page today ;) just yesterday I wrote a post about how it would be a good idea to quantify the importance of open issues, to encourage contributions. Check it out here: http://dennybritz.com/blog/2013/08/04/github-api-issue-analysis/ http://dennybritz.com/blog/2013/08/04/github-api-issue-analy... If someone wants to work on this together just shoot me a message!

mmahemoff 13y ago

GitHub could probably suggest projects automatically based on recent activity. ie find projects which have a good flow of recent activity and have accepted external pull requests, but aren't intimidatingly large.

shizzy0 13y ago

I strongly disagree. If you're a new developer looking to work on something, anything, completely indiscriminately then you're probably not ready to work on anything. The time required to contribute even on minimal issues is not insignificant. It requires learning at the very least what the project is, does, and moreover should do. I think the phase of "what should I work on?" is a fledging phase of developer development that one quickly overcomes and then becomes burdened by the vast opportunities that exist. I think erecting a sign/button/webpage that says, WORK ON $THIS, will do nothing to help it because the would-be contributor may have no interest in the project. Also, it may inhibit the formation of their taste. One must develop enough of an interest in and taste for software that they want to change some aspect of it; that's when an opportunity to contribute something valuable presents itself: "This would be better if..."

joeblau 13y ago

I just came across this. It looks like they have guidlines for contributing, but they are only acttivated when you open a pull request. https://github.com/blog/1184-contributing-guidelines https://github.com/blog/1184-contributing-guidelines