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List:       wine-devel
Subject:    Re: Contributing page needs fixing
From:       Francois Gouget <fgouget () free ! fr>
Date:       2003-03-30 20:30:38
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On Sun, 30 Mar 2003, Dimitrie O. Paun wrote:

> On March 30, 2003 04:53 am, Francois Gouget wrote:
> > 'Wine is almost finished and there are few things that are missing --
> > and these can't by just anyone. Really, now the last thing we need is
> > people comming over and messing with the source.'
>
> You can't "slightly transpose" things and expect that you get anything
> interesting. Look, all I'm saying is that this gives the wrong impression.
> Wine really needs developers in 99% of the cases. We can have the greatest
> website, and a nice Bugzilla, and all the organization that we'd want, but
> without code, it's nothing.

I works both ways. We can have great code but if the web site looks bad,
doesn't provide the needed info or looks like it's dead, then many
potential contributors will turn away.

It's like a race car. You can't expect it to go fast if it has a bad
engine (bad code). But you can't expect it to go fast either if the rest
of the car body (the web site) is not designed just right.

We need both good code and a good web site. Especially since Wine is
going to be used primarily by non-developpers.


> On the other hand, any improvement in the code
> will get us more users, more developers, more mind share, and that will
> result in people helping out *automatically* without us asking for help.

A good web site will get us more users too, more mind-share and thus
more developpers.


> So let's look at the Contributing page. We ask for web people. Fine.
> We could use some, granted, but do we really need anyone at the
> moment?

Yes, definitely. Now is not the time to say the 'web site is finished we
don't need anyone'. That's simply not true.


> So my problem is one of priorities. The very first thing we say is:
> we need help with the web site!

Everyone going to an open-source site knows they can contribute code.
Most non-coders assume they can contribute nothing. This is why an 'ow
to contribute' page must start with stuff for non-coders who are not
going to read the page to the end if it starts by saying we need people
with very technical skills.

Besides, coders already have tons of pages dedicated just to them in
the Development section:

 * To Do Lists
 * Fun Projects
 * Janitorial
 * Winelib

If with all that they don't find anything to contribute it means they
are not interested. Now, we could probably move some stuff from the
contributing page Development section to one of these other pages and
point to these.

-- 
Francois Gouget         fgouget@free.fr        http://fgouget.free.fr/
May your Tongue stick to the Roof of your Mouth with the Force of a Thousand Caramels.


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