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add post about diversity #6447

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44 changes: 44 additions & 0 deletions docs/_posts/2017-10-19-diversity-open-source.markdown
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title: "Diversity in Open Source, and Jekyll's role in it"
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What about a more generic post title?
After reading the whole post, it feels like it could be simple named

How to act for diversity in open-source?

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i feel like act for [...] is weird, phrasing-wise. but i agree, the post title is kind of long

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@DirtyF DirtyF Oct 20, 2017

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How to bring more diversity in open-source?

Jekyll's attempt at diversity in open-source

I'm not english native but you got the point.

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hmm, the more i think about it, the more i feel like the current title actually carries all the meaning it should... i dont think it has to be that generic, considering it is on the jekyll blog

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Let's publish then :)

date: 2017-10-19 21:33:00 +0200
author: pup
categories: [community]
---

Open Source has a problem with diversity. GitHub recently conducted a [survey](http://opensourcesurvey.org/2017) that revealed that 95% of the respondents were male, making the demographic even worse than in tech overall. Every other week, I seem to hear of another case of a maintainer engaging in targeted harassment against minorities. People somehow deem it completely okay to let these things slide, though.
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GitHub recently conducted a survey which revealed that 95% of the respondents were male,
The following clause "..making the demographic even worse than in tech overall.." doesn't flow well.. Consider rewording it.

"Every other week, I seem to come across a case of a maintainer engaging in targeted harassment against minorities". Also, do you want it to be in first-person or will a projected p.o.v be better: "Every other week, one seem to.."


So yeah, there's a bunch of big problems plaguing open source. Fortunately, there's a couple of things we can do to make it easier and more comfortable for people, especially minorities, that have never before contributed to any open source project before, to contribute to our projects.
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I'd strike the So yeah sentence and dive right into Fortunately. I also wonder if you can strike "especially minorities" – you are saying "people that have never before contributed" and I think the goal there is fairly direct. Ah, and you have two before's in that last sentence.


## Add a Code of Conduct, and enforce it

This might seem like one of the easiest steps to do, but it actually requires a lot of dedication to pull through with. Basically, a Code of Conduct is a document detailing what is and what isn't acceptable behavior in your project. A good Code of Conduct also details enforcement procedures, that means how the person violating the Code of Conduct gets dealt with. This is the point at which I've seen a looooot of projects fail. It's easy enough to copy-paste a Code of Conduct into your project, but it's just, if not more important to be clear on how to enforce it. Inconsistent, or worse, nonexistent enforcement is just going to scare off newcomers even more!
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It looks like there's a dangling "it's just" in the second-to-last sentence there. "It's easy enough .. but it's more important to be clear with how you enforce it."

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The little copy editor in me likes slightly different punctuation in the last sentence. "Inconsistent—or worse, non-existent—enforcement is just ..." Definitely unnecessary, I just like emdashes. 😹


The most widely adopted Code of Conduct is the [Contributor Covenant](https://www.contributor-covenant.org/). It's a very good catch-all document, but it is a bit light in the enforcement section, so I'd recommend to flesh it out by yourself, be it by means of adding contact information or expanding the enforcement rules.

No matter which Code of Conduct you pick, the most important thing is to actually _read it for yourself_. The worst thing in open source is a maintainer that doesn't know when they've violated their own Code of Conduct.

## Document your contributing workflow

The problem that puts people off the most is incomplete or missing documentation, as revealed through GitHub's [open source survey](http://opensourcesurvey.org/2017). A very popular myth in programming is that good code explains itself, which might be true, but only for the person writing it. It's important, especially once you put your project out there for the world to see, to document not only your code, but also the process by which you maintain it. Otherwise, it's going to be extremely hard for newcomers to even figure out where to begin contributing to your project.

Jekyll has [an entire section of its docs](/docs/contributing) dedicated to information on how to contribute for this very reason. Every documentation page has a link to directly edit and improve it on GitHub. It's also important to realize that not all contributions are code. It can be documentation, it can be reviewing pull requests, but it can also just be weighing into issues, and all of this should be recognized in the same way.
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It would be interesting to look up how many PR's merged in the last year were documentation. I bet well over half of PR's to this project have been documentation-related! Very important form of contribution. ✨

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github search says 204!

image

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so yeah, more than half of all pull requests


## Create newcomer-friendly issues

For most people new to open source, by far the biggest hurdle is putting up the first pull request. That's why initiatives such as [YourFirstPR](https://twitter.com/yourfirstpr) and [First Timers Only](http://www.firsttimersonly.com/) were started. Recently, [a GitHub bot that automatically creates first-timer friendly issues](https://github.com/hoodiehq/first-timers-bot) was created, which makes it very easy to make small changes into viable pull requests that can be created by any newcomer! So we decided to give it a shot, and we've created a couple of very easy first timers only issues:
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I think the by far in the first sentence can be omitted.. Also, putting up in that sentence is not correct. I'd use setting up or simply creating..

- first-timers-bot) was created
+ first-timers-bot) was launched
- which makes it very easy to make small changes into viable pull requests that can be created by any newcomer!
+ which enables any newcomer to convert small changes into viable pull requests quite easily!
- very easy first timers only issues
+ very easy `first-timers-only` issues


- [Issue #6437](https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll/issues/6437)
- [Issue #6438](https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll/issues/6438)
- [Issue #6439](https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll/issues/6439)

(There's also an up-to-date listing of all of our first-timers only issues [here](https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3Afirst-time-only))
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- all of our first-timers only issues
+ all of our first-timers-only issues


These issues are designed only to be taken on by someone who has had little to no exposure to contributing to open source before, and additionally, project maintainers offer support in case a question arises.
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- These issues are designed only to be taken on by someone who..
+ These issues are designed to be taken on by only someone who..


Jekyll is a very big and popular open source project, and we hope that with these special issues, we can help people who haven't contributed to open source before to catch a footing in these unsteady waters.

## Be nice

I know this is a cliche and a overused phrase, but really, it works if you pull through with it. Come to terms with the fact that some people aren't as fast or reliable as you might want to think. Don't get angry when a contributor takes a day longer than you might like them to. Treat new contributors to your project with respect, but also with hospitality. Think twice before you send that comment with slurs in it.

I've been contributing to open source for about 4 years now, and I've had my fair share of horrible, horrible experiences. But Jekyll has historically been a project that has always valued the people contributing to it over the code itself, and I hope we can keep it that way. I also hope that other project maintainers read this and take inspiration from this post. Every project should be more diverse.