Problem
We have good articles explaining topics like how to set up our projects and how to review a PR, but for someone just getting into contributing to open source projects it isn't clear what they need to learn, where to find those articles, or what their first steps should be. Our articles are organized in a confusing web of subarticles, which makes it easy to miss something important and makes it very hard to tell when you've covered everything you need.
As an example, currently we do not say anywhere on the site (that I can find) that the first step in writing a PR is writing an issue or how to get assigned to an issue. The closest we get is telling them NOT to open PR if they aren't assigned.
Solution
A single linear walkthrough/checklist for how to start contributing to our projects, probably added directly to www.pythondiscord.com/pages/guides/pydis-guides/contributing.
This walkthrough should
- be composed of actionable and skippable steps like "Learn the basics of git -> link to our article on git"
- cover cultural and workflow expectations, not just technical topics like Docker setup
- be totally comprehensive, i.e. someone who starts with 0 knowledge and completes the walkthrough should be ready to create an issue, write a PR, and review a PR
- use our existing articles by fitting them into discrete steps
The steps could include what they will learn in the article, and/or the minimal knowledge required to be able to skip it. E.g. something like:
Learn git
Here's our article on git -> [link]
You will learn how to use git to track the changes you make and then upload those changes to Github.
Skip if you know how to
- create a branch
- create a remote
- stage changes
- commit changes
- push changes
- pull changes
I see this issue as incorporating/superseding #483 since learning the workflow is a critical part of contributing.
Problem
We have good articles explaining topics like how to set up our projects and how to review a PR, but for someone just getting into contributing to open source projects it isn't clear what they need to learn, where to find those articles, or what their first steps should be. Our articles are organized in a confusing web of subarticles, which makes it easy to miss something important and makes it very hard to tell when you've covered everything you need.
As an example, currently we do not say anywhere on the site (that I can find) that the first step in writing a PR is writing an issue or how to get assigned to an issue. The closest we get is telling them NOT to open PR if they aren't assigned.
Solution
A single linear walkthrough/checklist for how to start contributing to our projects, probably added directly to www.pythondiscord.com/pages/guides/pydis-guides/contributing.
This walkthrough should
The steps could include what they will learn in the article, and/or the minimal knowledge required to be able to skip it. E.g. something like:
I see this issue as incorporating/superseding #483 since learning the workflow is a critical part of contributing.