What first attracted you to contributing to Dreamwidth? I am a heavy user of that site and believe in giving back if you really use a (free-ish) product, so I first hung out in Support, because that was what I knew from Livejournal. Then, one bored Friday, I thought "hey, Perl can't be that much different from Python and I have a few hours to kill" and asked for a development environment. I think I had my first patch submitted the next day and accepted a few days later.
What are some of the things that we (the DW project maintainers) did to make you feel welcome? Cheering! :) My Perl was very sketchy at first and the first thing I changed was just splitting an if statement because a wrong image was being displayed and I still got cheered on like I had just done a 400-line patch. That, throughout the past months, kept me motivated and now I have actually submitted 400-lines patches.
What's the best thing we did to help you get up to speed and contribute effectively? Not technically from the project maintainers, but the availability of dev environments is a big help and I know you two have as a goal that the DW code is easily installable. The #dw_kindergarten IRC channel was very helpful, as was that there were contributors I could talk to throughout the day - with my time zone I would usually be stuck shouting into dead silence as the US-Americans are still doing their day job. Also, very clear documentation on what programming style you guys want and how to submit a patch for review.
Was there anything in particular, big or small, that made you decide that DW was the kind of project you wanted to contribute to? Is boredom a valid answer? There were a lot of things that made me think DW was the kind of project I wanted to use, but boredom and curiosity plus the availability of people to help me when I needed help were the factors that made me choose to also contribute code.
If you've had experience on other OSS projects, what makes DW different? Better? (Worse?) I have tried getting into other projects the past few weeks, but found the entrance very difficult - and not only do I code almost every day, but I am the kind of person that attends hacker conferences. If I find it hard to find information on how to claim bugs, submit patches, and what programming style the project prefers, I shudder to think what programming beginners must think.
What's your favorite part about the DW project culture? The mentality of "it may be called a bug, but it's actually an opportunity to make something better". Also, I love how the developers are not just faceless shadows for most users (I think so, at least), because they actually comment on news posts or discuss things in dw_suggestions, etc. I think that's also great for the users to feel like their wishes are heard.
Do you have any good stories to share about awesome moments? * the first accepted patch. I didn't even have it rejected first, it actually went through. I was so excited. * coming home from a particularly hard day to find a patch I had resubmitted several times accepted. * submitting a patch while in IRC, then the note goes up that a patch has been submitted and people going "oh, cool!" * surfing my network page and finding people say "oh, this new feature is so cool" and thinking 'I made that!'
What are some of the things you've learned, both technical and otherwise, while working on DW that you don't think you would have learned otherwise? I don't think I would have learned Perl on top of Python otherwise - and I have so far not opened a Perl book, I just learned by reading the code and asking a few questions. Same with CSS. My mySQL knowledge has deepened, and I now have some understanding of javaScript. I have learned valuable lessons about accessibility, a better programming/documenting style (a project that encourages comments!), better communication style with 'laypeople' and a bunch of other things I am forgetting here.
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I am a heavy user of that site and believe in giving back if you really use a (free-ish) product, so I first hung out in Support, because that was what I knew from Livejournal. Then, one bored Friday, I thought "hey, Perl can't be that much different from Python and I have a few hours to kill" and asked for a development environment. I think I had my first patch submitted the next day and accepted a few days later.
What are some of the things that we (the DW project maintainers) did to make you feel welcome?
Cheering! :) My Perl was very sketchy at first and the first thing I changed was just splitting an if statement because a wrong image was being displayed and I still got cheered on like I had just done a 400-line patch. That, throughout the past months, kept me motivated and now I have actually submitted 400-lines patches.
What's the best thing we did to help you get up to speed and contribute effectively?
Not technically from the project maintainers, but the availability of dev environments is a big help and I know you two have as a goal that the DW code is easily installable. The #dw_kindergarten IRC channel was very helpful, as was that there were contributors I could talk to throughout the day - with my time zone I would usually be stuck shouting into dead silence as the US-Americans are still doing their day job.
Also, very clear documentation on what programming style you guys want and how to submit a patch for review.
Was there anything in particular, big or small, that made you decide that DW was the kind of project you wanted to contribute to?
Is boredom a valid answer? There were a lot of things that made me think DW was the kind of project I wanted to use, but boredom and curiosity plus the availability of people to help me when I needed help were the factors that made me choose to also contribute code.
If you've had experience on other OSS projects, what makes DW different? Better? (Worse?)
I have tried getting into other projects the past few weeks, but found the entrance very difficult - and not only do I code almost every day, but I am the kind of person that attends hacker conferences. If I find it hard to find information on how to claim bugs, submit patches, and what programming style the project prefers, I shudder to think what programming beginners must think.
What's your favorite part about the DW project culture?
The mentality of "it may be called a bug, but it's actually an opportunity to make something better". Also, I love how the developers are not just faceless shadows for most users (I think so, at least), because they actually comment on news posts or discuss things in dw_suggestions, etc. I think that's also great for the users to feel like their wishes are heard.
Do you have any good stories to share about awesome moments?
* the first accepted patch. I didn't even have it rejected first, it actually went through. I was so excited.
* coming home from a particularly hard day to find a patch I had resubmitted several times accepted.
* submitting a patch while in IRC, then the note goes up that a patch has been submitted and people going "oh, cool!"
* surfing my network page and finding people say "oh, this new feature is so cool" and thinking 'I made that!'
What are some of the things you've learned, both technical and otherwise, while working on DW that you don't think you would have learned otherwise?
I don't think I would have learned Perl on top of Python otherwise - and I have so far not opened a Perl book, I just learned by reading the code and asking a few questions. Same with CSS. My mySQL knowledge has deepened, and I now have some understanding of javaScript. I have learned valuable lessons about accessibility, a better programming/documenting style (a project that encourages comments!), better communication style with 'laypeople' and a bunch of other things I am forgetting here.