[Suggestion] Improve new member experience, allow easier involvement/induction

[lumjjb]

Description: What's your idea?

Improve new member experience to allow members to be able to contribute faster, or get more comfortable with the contribution process.

Impact:

This will help strengthen the community by getting more members engaged.

Scope:

"not yet determined"

Additional info:

• Current new members page

[TheFoxAtWork]

can we have a bot to message them when they join the channel with details about getting started "read this, create your first PR with us by tackling a good first issue"? and then in another post in a month to say "don't forget to introduce urself at a meeting and add urself to the repo"

[lumjjb]

It would be awesome if new members themselves to be involved with this so we can get feedback on what your questions are first when you joined the TAG!

[TheFoxAtWork]

i've also gotten questions about how to lead their first effort. I've been sending them to the process page and linking the to paper process which has some details

[ultrasaurus]

regarding question of leading first effort, I would suggest that we direct them to our (hopefully well-groomed) backlog and to look for projects that already have a TL/chair sponsor but lack a project lead, and then chime in on issue that they are interested and willing to participate as project lead.

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[sayantani11]

@lumjjb What can we do to contribute to this issue?

[lumjjb]

Hi @sayantani11 ! A perfect way for you to contribute to this is to provide some input about what you're experience is of a new member! And some suggestions, some problems you faced, what you think is lacking/we can do better. That would be super valuable!

And maybe from that feedback we can determine if we can create a PR on the current process or even create a project from it!

[sayantani11]

Took me some time to sum up but here are few things I can say as a new member.
Most new contributors try to look for good first issues, and that's because it helps them gain confidence and understand the project, so if we could preserve good first issues for new people joining the community. Next is, people who are new to open source as I can say from my experience have kind of fear and self doubt before contributing to major projects, so while assigning if we could add something like "Feel free to reach out to us with any issues, its okay to ask and we are here for helping".
For good first issues, it would help if the issue explains what are the things they need to implement for resolving, or may be adding reference to previous similar PRs.
Lastly I guess we should try enhancing the docs at intervals, taking feedbacks from new contributors, what they didn't find in the docs that required to do. And a +1 if we allow them to make the change.

I guess I was able to give a point of view
@lumjjb

[sayantani11]

May be we could have someone who could find good-first-issues and guide new contributors if they are facing any issues.

[TheFoxAtWork]

This is FANTASTIC! a couple things i can see as specific improvements based on this feedback — @sayantani11 @lumjjb @achetal01 do you think the below should become a separate issue so we can track it independent of this?

• Create a new file in CONTRIBUTING/ called "first-time-contributions"
• New file should include:
  • Where to find good-first-issues
  • who to contact (co-chairs & tech leads - link to who they are in the repo) and how to contact (slack DMs or channel #tag-security-governance or via email cncf-tag-security-leads@lists.cncf.io ) if there are any questions, comments, requests for help in contributing
  • Link to instructions on contributing to an open source project: https://opensource.guide/how-to-contribute/#how-to-submit-a-contribution & https://docs.github.com/en/github/collaborating-with-pull-requests
  • If the issue under good-first-issue isn't clear comment on it! ask the submitter for more details or contact the co-chairs and tech leads, they are here to help!
  • let them know that contributing to open source can be scary, overwhelming, or can make them feel some doubt, its to be expected. We are happy to have a one-on-one discussion, mentor them, and ensure their contribution is successful so they can keep it up.
• Update the NEW-MEMBERS doc to link to a new file in CONTRIBUTING/ called "first-time-contributions"

[sayantani11]

@TheFoxAtWork Yeah we should definitely do that.

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[lumjjb]

Hi @sayantani11 ! Would you like to help out with this issue?

[sayantani11]

@lumjjb Guess I already made a PR for it!!!

[sayantani11]

#798
cc @lumjjb

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[anvega]

We've moved away from the static members file and how we onboard/engage with the community, understanding that the nature of the participation is fluid and members recognize each other for their active participation