Add a Getting Involved guide

[bnb]

This adds a very bare-bones guide to getting involved to the Community Committee. The contents reference an Issue (#74) and a PR (#73) - that I've submitted as easy wins for things to help people get started.

This is very much a WIP, and any + all input is appreciated on how to improve. ❤️

[jennwrites]

I'm curious, how is this different from the collaborator guide? And couldn't we consolidate this info into one doc?

[nebrius]

I agree with @renrutnnej, this should go in CONTRIBUTING.md

[bnb]

@renrutnnej That is actually a problem I ran into at the beginning - I was having a hard time distinguishing between what should go in a Contributing Guide versus something that's completely introductory for newcomers.

The distinction I landed on was that the Collaborator Guide seemed to be a reference for existing collaborators (which, I just learned, is actually distinct from members #71). The goal with this was to have a starting point where we can directly point to for people who are curious about how to get involved, but aren't sure exactly how.

That could possibly fit within the scope of the Collaborator Guide as a section - would love to hear your thoughts 👍

[jennwrites]

I’m concerned that we're putting a lot of effort into documentation and process before we’ve had solid examples to document.

My experience with onboarding new folks in the Hoodie project showed me that you want to make documentation as simple & concise as humanly possible to empower action and not let people get confused and disengage.

[nebrius]

The distinction I landed on was that the Collaborator Guide seemed to be a reference for existing collaborators

Not really, if it comes off that way, then that's a problem in the contributing guide.

These changes definitely should go in the CONTRIBUTING.md. That file is special in GitHub land because it's what's referenced in issues and pull requests in the GitHub UI. We definitely don't want to loose that ability.

[bnb]

My experience with onboarding new folks in the Hoodie project showed me that you want to make documentation as simple & concise as humanly possible to empower action and not let people get confused and disengage.

Awesome feedback, @renrutnnej. 🙏

If there's a more simple way to get people onboarded, I'm 100000% for that - I really just want to be able to empower people to get started, and at this point I'm jut not quite sure how we can do that consistently and effectively. That was my goal with this - happy to take an alternative route.

[mhdawson]

Is it also worth mentioning that watching the recordings of the Community Committee meetings and reviewing the minutes is also a good way to get up to speed with what is being discussed ?

[ghost]

@mhdawson i think that's a good idea! this shouldn't be limited to only commcomm though - it should say something like Read through meeting notes of a team that interests you or something

[bnb]

@mhdawson Issue right now is there's not an easy way to go find the meeting recordings. Minutes are in place, I'll likely go submit a PR to add recording URLs to the minutes.

@pup Also +1! I want to be sure we have that content before adding it though - don't want to direct people to something that doesn't exist yet 😊

[hackygolucky]

@nebrius Are you +1 on this document now but -1 on its location? If so, will moving it to CONTRIBUTING.MD change your mind? I'm happy to approve this PR once it is moved if this is the contingency you think should be applied.

[nebrius]

@hackygolucky not yet. Once this is moved to CONTRIBUTING.md though, I think we'll be ready to go!

[bnb]

@nebrius / @hackygolucky moved to CONTRIBUTING.md - didn't realize that was the blocker 😅

Please LMK if the location is good or bad - I figured "Getting Started" should go at the beginning, but can move as needed.

[bnb]

@nebrius Updated 😁

[bnb]

@gr2m Updated that - thanks! This PR predated that being linked, and I added the placeholder so I'd go and add in a section (see #73) 😅

[nebrius]

Looks like this is ready to go, thanks again @bnb! 🎉