On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 7:57 AM, C. Michael Pilato <cmpil...@collab.net> wrote: > Justin, we're trying to aim our content at a wide variety of individuals, > from those who've only heard of Subversion to those that use it heavily to > those that are developing it. And yeah, I admit that I've been trying to > give non-dev site visitors preferential treatment. Maybe that's wrong of > me. To that end, "Getting Involved" isn't really aimed at you (and > furthermore, is but a draft at this stage), so I'm not surprised that you > find it useless. It's really aimed at a few million other Subversion users, > fashioned after similar pages found on other high-profile software projects' > websites.
In my mind, the point of being an open-source project is that we are trying to encourage contributions. Users are a happy and fortunate side-effect. So, when our website specifically hides relevant information about contributing where a developer who wants to think about contributing won't find it, then our website has failed. When the document's subtitle is: "If you are contributing to the Subversion project, please read this first." and we don't link to it *anywhere* where any reasonable developer would find it, isn't something really really broken? (BTW, no, "Documentation" is not where a developer would look if they want to contribute! I read "documentation" as "SVN book". Not where I would expect to find developer process info!) I applaud going after users - but remember that is a decision that you and Mark made on your own and didn't really consult anyone else on. That choice reflects your personal priorities - great! My priorities are developers and potential contributors - and I think that's just as valid a focus and at least worth throwing a few bones at. I do not believe that one additional link on the sidebar is going to ruin that focus. All I'm asking is that we add something somewhere in a prominent place that *clearly* points to our document that says: "If you are contributing to the Subversion project, please read this first". Nothing more, nothing less. I really don't care where and how we do it, but if we continue to hide it, I feel it is going to hurt our community in the long run. -- justin
