Re: [Gnewsense-dev] Potential new supporter

[George Roberge]

On Tue, 2014-03-25 at 23:15 +0100, Sam Geeraerts wrote:
> Op Mon, 24 Mar 2014 19:50:43 -0400
> schreef George Roberge <address@hidden>:
> 
> > I did spend some time on the site and Savannah, and created accounts
> > on both.  I'll tell you that looking over the project was a little 
> > intimidating (since I'm not a coder), but I did see a few places
> > where I could help out with some of the perhaps more tedious jobs.
> > There are plenty of teams on the site, and it appears that there's
> > plenty to do.
> 
> The project's not meant to be intimidating, but I can understand if it
> looks like our attention is mainly on code. Other areas need help too.
> 
> > One thing first: I saw on Savannah that before jumping into asking 
> > permission to be added to a project, that the "applicant" should
> > reach the project leader(s) through another means, like the project's
> > mailing list.  So I imagine that this would be the place to talk to
> > someone?
> 
> Yes.
> 
> > And this may be a dumb question, but given the need for
> > coders, is there honestly a point for a non-coding person at this
> > time?
> 
> Your written English skills could help with cleaning up the wiki. There
> are more than a few outdated pages on it [1]. Some should be
> updated/rewritten, some should be deleted. The better the website is
> written, the more attractive and useful it is to users.
> 
> You also mentioned advocacy. I would like it if gNewSense would be
> known not just among software freedom enthusiasts, but also with people
> outside that community that might be interested. Hanging out with those
> crowds and dropping names is a good start. I'm open to other
> suggestions (for identifying target groups and ways to reach out to
> them).
> 
> > And this may be a dumb question, but given the need for coders, is
> > there honestly a point for a non-coding person at this time?  I don't
> > want to jump in and start doing things that aren't particularly
> > useful to anyone at this point, and have anyone thinking, "Oh, yay,
> > thank you for doing that thing...that really doesn't serve any
> > purpose at this point...."
> 
> You're welcome to contribute in any way you see fit, keeping in mind
> that our focus is software freedom and that available man-hours in the
> team are limited.
> 
> > Silly question maybe, but I have zero experience joining something
> > like this.  I'm a good independent learner, but I'm not familiar with
> > "the system" here.
> 
> Not much of a system, really. Showing initiative and asking for help
> when you need it should get you a long way.
> 
> [1] http://www.gnewsense.org/CategoryOutdated

Excellent- sounds like a plan, then.  I'll get on the gNewSense site and
find something to do.  Thank you!

By the way: the Northeast GNU/Linuxfest is next Saturday in Boston, MA
(USA).  I don't know who will be there representing Linux; I know
FreeBSD and Red Hat were there last year.  Perhaps there's an
opportunity there, if gNewSense has pamphlets or anything like that.

Take care,
George R.