Hi. I think your md pages are SUPER....what I suggested was an additional wiki page (actually someone else called it postoffice) where we put small tasks that need to be translated / written etc.
So I see your pages go hand in hand with Wiki pages, just too different levels of interaction with the community. jan On 31 October 2012 16:59, Rob Weir <robw...@apache.org> wrote: > On Wed, Oct 31, 2012 at 11:51 AM, Kay Schenk <kay.sch...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > > On 10/28/2012 04:30 PM, Rob Weir wrote: > >> > >> On Sun, Oct 28, 2012 at 6:29 PM, Andrea Pescetti <pesce...@apache.org> > >> wrote: > >>> > >>> On 23/10/2012 Rob Weir wrote: > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> New Volunteer Orientation root page: > >>>> http://incubator.apache.org/openofficeorg/orientation/ > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> This is an excellent resource. But we received a few requests from > >>> prospective volunteers this weekend and I'm believing it would be > >>> overwhelming to point them there. I still believe these documents are > >>> excellent, but probably they are assuming our volunteer is above > average, > >>> or > >>> at least willing to engage deeply with the project. They would be > perfect > >>> for me, for you, or for a newcomer like Jan who has the skills and the > >>> mindset to understand in detail how things work. > >>> > >> > >> And how do we know in advance which volunteers are like Jan and which > are > >> not? > >> > >> I think we should find some way to point them to the info and say that > >> they are welcome to jump in and ignore this all, or skim it in > >> parallel with direct participation, or read through this stuff first. > >> It is entirely up to them. > >> > >> But generally, the more one needs to interact with other project > >> participants and other systems and even other parts of Apache, the > >> more this information becomes useful. Although not stated, one could > >> almost say that "Level 4" would be becoming a Committer. So you are > >> correct that this is a track for a more determined volunteer, > >> > >> > >>> But we will also have (and we do have: most volunteers I see on the > >>> mailing > >>> lists in Italian fall in this category) volunteers who don't care that > >>> much > >>> about OpenOffice as a project: they use the product and just want to > give > >>> something back. They want to scratch an itch, or just to do something, > >>> but > >>> they are very task-oriented: they want something to do rather than > >>> something > >>> to read. For example, we may have translation volunteers who would be > >>> perfectly satisfied if we e-mail them a PO file and tell them to grab > >>> POEdit > >>> and send the file back; and then they would consider a deeper > engagement, > >>> but not earlier. > >>> > >> > >> Translation volunteers are different in many ways, but even there I > >> think we need some solid orientation material. They won't go far > >> before wondering why they cannot write to Pootle and the website, but > >> others can. That leads us into discussion of roles at Apache, etc. > >> And we really need to expose them to the Apache License at the > >> earliest opportunity. We do no one any favors if we're passing around > >> PO files via private mail, and receiving translations without any > >> public record of contribution. > >> > >> In any case, this is an issue we've had for a while. Becoming a > >> Committer is a higher hurdle than is appropriate for most translation > >> volunteers, due to iCLA, etc. The orientation guides did not create > >> this problem, they merely remind us of it. > >> > >>> And indeed they are not totally wrong: knowing how the Apache Board > works > >>> is > >>> not needed to be able to translate a press release, or a few OpenOffice > >>> strings, into Italian. > >>> > >>> Could it be that we need a "practical" entry point for people who want > to > >>> help and just want to do it immediately? Placing these information at > >>> level > >>> 3 of the "Volunteer Orientation" seems too much for volunteers who want > >>> to > >>> jump in and do something (while, again, the orientation guide is > >>> excellent > >>> for a skilled, determined volunteer). > >>> > >> > >> Since "level 3" for translators does not exist yet, it may be too > >> early to say whether or not is "practical". (I hope it will be > >> practical). If we make it self-contained, it may be possible for it > >> be consulted on its own for someone who is not seeking deeper > >> engagement with the project. > >> > >> -Rob > >> > >> > >>> Regards, > >>> Andrea. > > > > > > Rob, > > > > I still support this whole notion. But, maybe it would be better to go > with > > more of a "checklist" style instead of the in-depth explanations you > have in > > this document. > > > > What if you ported this to the wiki (Jan suggested this as well. cwiki is > > easiest for me but I have no object to wiki.openoffice.org) so those of > us > > that are interested can more easily contribute to this worthwhile guide. > > > > Of course you are free to start whatever wiki page you wish. But I'll > be continuing with the mdtext pages I've started. This is based on my > experience with providing orientation to many of our Symphony > developers on how Apache projects work and how to participate in such > a community. This approach works. Other approaches might work for > others as well. But I'm going to give this a try. > > -Rob > > > Thanks for starting this. It is needed. > > > > -- > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > > MzK > > > > "Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never > > dealt with a cat." > > -- Robert Heinlein >
