How to contribute more?

Savagedlight

Savagedlight

Hey!

I've been focusing mostly on trying to help out on forums and IRC, and writing some guides on my blog (and on forums) from time to time. However, I'm considering getting more involved with FreeBSD. I'm proficient with C#, have quite a bit of PHP/HTML/JavaScript knowledge, and am quite methodical when documenting routines. I also consider myself an experienced FreeBSD user, and am not afraid to explore new grounds.

Any suggestions on how I can contribute more?
 
After writing a big paragraph about how we need help with documentation, I deleted it all and will suggest this instead: right now, there is some feature, misfeature, or lack of a feature of FreeBSD that bothers you. It may be big, it may be minor, but it's there somewhere. Those can be excellent things to work on. By fixing that kind of thing, you not only remove something that's been bothering you, you help everyone else annoyed by it.
 
Savagedlight said:
Any suggestions on how I can contribute more?
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Disclaimer: I'm only basing my comment on impressions and overall experiences but keep in mind that those experiences aren't all strictly FreeBSD related.

My suggestion is a simple one: Don't force things, but let it grow on you. Bigger isn't always better.

If there's one thing I learned from the FreeBSD community in general it's that small things aren't just as important as big things; they're also recognized as such. Which, in my very humble and biased opinion, is one of those important differences with "other" projects.

But the main reason why I'm going "start slow" here is because I've seen this before. There is a huge risk if you're going to take on a lot "more" stuff simply because you might feel that "more" is "better". Trust me; it's not. Not per definition that is.

Because "more" also means that you'll need to spend a lot more time maintaining all of that stuff. And more than often (no pun intended) such scenario's don't always last that long. People take up a lot, but after a few months or maybe some more end up discovering that they can no longer invest the required time.

And because some of them took their new tasks as some form of collection they also see no other alternative but to drop the whole collective instead of bits of it.


It's something which many people overlook in my opinion. I honestly think that smaller contributions which you can easily keep up for 6 to 8 years or so would be much more valued than starting to devote a lot of time only to last for, say, 2 to 3 years (an assumption obviously).

Please note that I'm not saying that "more" is "bad" per definition. And if you feel you can invest that time then by all means; go for it.

Just keep in mind that more doesn't have to start big.
 
There is one thing I always wanted to know: How could we stay informed if a maintainer stops her/his support for a given port?

All maintainers are volunteers and at some point of time they just run out of time and stop porting newer versions. The rest of us are not aware of the situation and hope to see the next version of the port soon. Is there a way for a maintainer to signalise: hey guys, I can't support you any more with this port, don't wait - please find another maintainer. Instead, time passes by until someone takes the initiative to replace him.

Or am I totally wrong?
 
According to Contributing to the FreeBSD Ports Collection article:
7. When to call it quits

As your interests and commitments change, you may find that you no longer have time to continue some (or all) of your ports contributions. That is fine! Please let us know if you are no longer using a port or have otherwise lost time or interest in being a maintainer. In this way we can go ahead and allow other people to try to work on existing problems with the port without waiting for your response. Remember, FreeBSD is a volunteer project, so if maintaining a port is no fun anymore, it is probably time to let someone else do it!

In any case, the Ports Management Team (portmgr) reserves the right to reset your maintainership if you have not actively maintained your port in some time. (Currently, this is set to 3 months.) By this, we mean that there are unresolved problems or pending updates that have not been worked on during that time.
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For further information, if you are interested to maintaining a port, read this relevant thread :)
 
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