How involve more developers?

mhhh sorryā€¦ i didnā€™t understand :cold_sweat:ā€¦ could you make an example?

I think we do need to head for another way. With bountysource or even paid community modules you end up with a ClearOS clone. I think we shouldnā€™t want that.

I propose a tutor or mentor program. But this needs a lot of effort from both mentor and junior developer. It also means a serious commitment from them, even though it is voluntary.

Besides that, I think a module would be a LOT more valuable if it is developed by someone who decided that functionality is an absolute must for the NethServer project instead of doing the code for the money.
Coding for money does not feel right to me. Not now anyway, in this stage of the project.

What we do need are volunteers that like to code and want to teach others the ropes. And again, start small and slowly aim higher. Recently we had a great example of starting small: Sambastatus: my first module for nethserver
This kind of initiatives make me REALLY HAPPY! :smiley:

6 Likes

Got your point and I like the idea, how can we make it sustainable? Any thoughts?

Times ago @filippo_carletti wrote a good guide on how to setup a NethServer Developer Environment

http://wiki.nethserver.org/doku.php?id=developer:developer_howto&s[]=development

Thatā€™s another great example from NextCloud:

1 Like

A good actualized guide will certainly be welcome :grinning:

1 Like

This is another successful example from @GG_jr @dnutan @dz00te for our community :gift:

3 Likes

This is a difficult one. It would be good to first identify who would like to enter this program.

On the ā€˜support sideā€™ maybe a dedicated page/forum/ā€¦ Could be created where tutors and volunteers meet and ask questions. Since this can and probably will be rather technical, a seperate section might be a good idea. Not to restrict access (as far as i am concerened it is open to anyone) but more to seperate the usual stuff from tbe really technicsl coding stuff.
I can be completely wrong here, but I am just following my gut feeling here.

There are some community coders that have shown their skills already. It would be great they stand up as tutors: @dz00te, @stephdl (all others, raise your hands!!)

There is absolutely a need for a good git(hub) guide to start with, since ns7 uses github as repository.
This github guide can be a good start.

As said, I am following my gut feeling here. I would really like to hear feedback on this. Add suggestions if you like.
I do find these developments in our community very exciting and hope this will be a major step towards maturity of the NetServer community.

clap clap for the guide @filippo_carletti, since a long time I didnā€™t read it.

@robb, the system you described is idealistic and must be the target to go, however the earth doesnā€™t turn in this direction.

Firstly because becoming a coder isnā€™t easy, and a lot of people wonā€™t do it well, of course they are good elsewhere. If you are a coder, go to github, read the source code, all the answers to your questions are there. Trust me, a coder knows it without me :slight_smile:

The second question to solve is how to do it sustainably, how to create, to maintain, to solve bugs all the time with the smile.

Recently I stopped all the work because an idiot asked me badly to solve a bug. Of course it is my mistake, but what I give is on my free time, beside my work and familyā€¦and you know what, this guy is an Integratorā€¦he earns money with my work :rage:

Hope not here! Otherwise let me know his nameā€¦ he should feel my whip! :slight_smile:

@dz00te I guess that bountysource is failed because of this. As we say ā€œipse dixitā€

3 Likes

One idea, surely too late for this year, however it could be bice for the next time.

https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/

1 Like

Sure. I thought about it many times in the past, provide good mentors and submit the application programs isnā€™t so simple tough

But it absolutely could (and probably would) generate a HUGE boost in code for NethServer. Think of all those extra modules we could addā€¦ :heart_eyes:

GSOC could be a great accelerator for NethServer, sadly there are many things to do before submitting a project and much more during/after the development.
Right now, we donā€™t have enough resources to follow such project :frowning:

But if anyone want to mentor a student, we can try to arrange something.

Iā€™m fresh from the community leadership summit. Needless to say, I suddenly ask the attendees which strategies they adopt in order to involve more developers. Thatā€™s what they suggested me:

  • create junior issues. Easy things to do, maybe split from big tasks/issues. A junior issue needs to be deeply explained using high-level terminology so that a newcomer can easily jump in and start to make some tests.
  • junior issue main features are: no urgent, no blocker, shouldnā€™t be fixed by the dev team.
  • mentoring. Junior issue need to be the occasion to train junior devs, even if theyā€™re not so effective in terms of productivity. (mentoring costs more that getting the things done on your own)
  • participate in GSOC and outreachy program. Again, it highly suggested to allocate some resources to follow these project, aiming to long-term results.

How can we start to identify and create these type of issues?
What are your thoughts? @dev_team @ambassadors_group

Edit: again I know, itā€™s time-consuming but no pain no gain, folks!

6 Likes

We have created a new ā€œJunior jobsā€ column inside GH project: https://github.com/orgs/NethServer/projects/1

Check it out!

4 Likes

This thread is still active, nice to write down my mind. Lastly I talked with a friend about the modules I made, around 26 modules yet. He was surprised, seeing the work, the time, the hardware I need.

When you do a ā€˜yum updateā€™, it is free for you, but I have a mirror that I pay 50ā‚¬ every month, I have a server at home to build rpm and test them, a laptop because often I code when Iā€™m not at home.

And of course the electricity is free in France. I estimated the cost about 1000ā‚¬ per year, but I donā€™t talk about the time to do itā€¦10, 20, 30 hours per weekā€¦how much do you pay a developer in your country ?

The bounty was tried, but the amount is really low, giving 40$ for nethserver-fail2ban.

I can see my motivation decreases, because I have never reached a sustainable way for development. Do Iā€™m the only guy able to pay, to code, to deliver for free a work that others can sell to their customers or their bosses.

Saying this is funny, but real !

Iā€™m not depressive, I have had two little delights recently

  • I have a paypal button, asking for donationā€¦and I have had 50ā‚¬ lastly (first donation since 2014)
  • I have had a nice PR from @dnutan ā€¦nice to not be alone.

Iā€™m in a big period of meditation to find some interests back for me, Iā€™m not sure that I can continue a long time like thisā€¦but my code will/should stay free !

4 Likes

Iā€™m understand you feeling pensatif with the amount of buckā€¦

And did you already think in a VPS for the dev structure?

1 Like

@stephdl,
50 euros per month seems to be expensive for a remote mirror (I am presuming by mirror, you mean a server with either ftp / sftp or http access and some sort of cronjob styled synchronization with the original distributions repositories).

Especially considering that I am spending approx 27euros (Ā£24) per three months for a VPS (iperweb.com)

1 Like

I use proxgroup for hosting , and their VPS offer are like this priceā€¦
And you wll economize with electricityā€¦ with backupā€¦ with stress!

1 Like