30 votes

Ask Tildes: What is the best way to get involved with the development of Tildes?

Posted by deleted
Tags: tildes, development, contributing

Hi everyone, I'm a frontend developer and do a bit of backend work as well. I'd really like to contribute some of my downtime to helping build this site. I've checked out the issue tracker on gitlab and some of the docs, tech goals and announcement, but I'd like to start getting my hands dirty and contribute some code.

  • Is there a roadmap for development?
  • A feature list to implement?
  • Bugs to fix?

How can I help out? What's the best way to get started?

Also for all non-devs, what is the best way that they can start helping out?

16 comments

  1. [11]
    cfabbro
    (edited )
    Link
    Great questions and thanks for the showing interest in helping us, we appreciate it. Gitlab boards will serve as that for us, although we (i.e. me) probably needs to organize it better if we ever...

    Great questions and thanks for the showing interest in helping us, we appreciate it.

    Is there a roadmap for development?

    Gitlab boards will serve as that for us, although we (i.e. me) probably needs to organize it better if we ever get the chance (HALP! invite request overload!). I am also trying to convince @deimos to use Trello as well since their roadmap feature is slightly more fun/marketable.

    A feature list to implement?
    Bugs to fix?

    Our gitlab issues tracker can be sorted by label and the current list of labels and their purpose can be seen here, many of which even non-technical people can help us with, such as suggesting possibilities to investigate and fully fleshed out feature ideas (although please try to make them practical for now).

    How can I help out? What's the best way to get started?
    Also for all non-devs, what is the best way that they can start helping out?

    The best way right now for everyone to help is to just disclose any issues they spot, either by submitting them to our gitlab issues tracker (which I will label properly after you submit them) or make a thread on ~tildes or even ~test which we also monitor for people bug hunting.

    Participating in our daily discussions and providing feedback is also crucial and while we can't respond to every single comment, question and concern simply because of how many other things we have to do right now, I promise you we are reading them and taking everything into consideration.

    And if you spot anyone asking questions you have seen us answer or address elsewhere, referring to that response for the person will certainly help us a great deal.

    We understand our documentation is a bit scattered right now but we're working on that (which you can also help with).

    p.s. The reason we aren't opensource yet (@deimos on the HN thread last week):

    Deimorz 6 days ago [-]

    As mentioned, the license is a factor, but there are a couple of other things I wanted to get done first as well. I feel that it's pretty important to have good documentation available immediately about how to get a dev version running, how things work, how to contribute, and so on. I don't want to just dump a pile of code out by itself, that's a bad experience for potential contributors.

    It won't be long until it's open-sourced - a week or two at most. Before today, the site hasn't had very many users at all, and it's definitely not something I'm going to be keeping hidden/closed while I continue to develop.

    12 votes
    1. [6]
      Scion
      Link Parent
      What made you guys choose Gitlab over GitHub?

      What made you guys choose Gitlab over GitHub?

      4 votes
      1. [4]
        Deimos
        Link Parent
        Mostly because the /tildes url was still available. But seriously, it was mostly because I think GitLab's principles and the way they run their company line up far better with Tildes. They're...

        Mostly because the /tildes url was still available.

        But seriously, it was mostly because I think GitLab's principles and the way they run their company line up far better with Tildes. They're open-source themselves (GitHub isn't) and overall run the company in a very open way. GitHub doesn't have many feature advantages any more, and they're also way deeper in the VC hole (they've taken $350M) so I'm not sure if they're going to have to start monetizing in some ugly ways eventually.

        17 votes
        1. [2]
          cfabbro
          (edited )
          Link Parent
          Yeah, and Sourceforge’s attempt at getting away with inserting adware comes to mind there. :/

          also way deeper in the VC hole (they've taken $350M) so I'm not sure if they're going to have to start monetizing in some ugly ways eventually.

          Yeah, and Sourceforge’s attempt at getting away with inserting adware comes to mind there. :/

          7 votes
          1. Emerald_Knight
            Link Parent
            I remember hearing about that fiasco. It always seems like there's some kind of arms race between advertisers (and those who use them) with increasingly worse advertising practices and users who...

            I remember hearing about that fiasco. It always seems like there's some kind of arms race between advertisers (and those who use them) with increasingly worse advertising practices and users who are getting increasingly fed up with the tactics that end up being used against them. It's unfortunate because I can't even feel safe enabling basic web advertisements anymore to help support the websites I enjoy using.

            1 vote
        2. Scion
          Link Parent
          Cool, thanks. To be clear, I have no issue at all with Gitlab, I was just curious why one over the other.

          Cool, thanks. To be clear, I have no issue at all with Gitlab, I was just curious why one over the other.

          3 votes
      2. Emerald_Knight
        Link Parent
        I'm not among the initial team, but I use gitlab for my own work. My own personal reasoning for choosing them is pricing (for private projects), tooling available, and disk space provided as...

        I'm not among the initial team, but I use gitlab for my own work. My own personal reasoning for choosing them is pricing (for private projects), tooling available, and disk space provided as distinct advantages over Github.

        5 votes
    2. [3]
      Emerald_Knight
      Link Parent
      I think to there are integrations available to sync trello cards with gitlab issues. It might be worth researching.

      I think to there are integrations available to sync trello cards with gitlab issues. It might be worth researching.

      3 votes
      1. [2]
        cfabbro
        Link Parent
        Thanks, I will definitely look into that since I am the biggest proponent for using Trello. ;) Added a reminder to do so to gitlab.

        Thanks, I will definitely look into that since I am the biggest proponent for using Trello. ;)
        Added a reminder to do so to gitlab.

        3 votes
        1. Emerald_Knight
          Link Parent
          No problem. There's no guarantee that existing solutions are sufficient, but a quick glance-over suggested that solutions exist. Unfortunately I can't dedicate much time to researching the issue...

          No problem. There's no guarantee that existing solutions are sufficient, but a quick glance-over suggested that solutions exist. Unfortunately I can't dedicate much time to researching the issue myself at the moment or I'd just take care of that myself :)

          1 vote
    3. deleted
      Link Parent
      Thanks for the great answer! Excellent. I enjoy writing documentation. I've just installed pelican and will see where I can help out.

      Thanks for the great answer!

      We understand our documentation is a bit scattered right now but we're working on that (which you can also help with).

      Excellent. I enjoy writing documentation. I've just installed pelican and will see where I can help out.

      3 votes
  2. Fantastitech
    Link
    The code repo hasn't gone public yet. We're still waiting for that.

    The code repo hasn't gone public yet. We're still waiting for that.

    6 votes
  3. [2]
    crius
    Link
    Welcome to the club. We're several already waiting to get our hands dirty :)

    Welcome to the club. We're several already waiting to get our hands dirty :)

    4 votes
    1. cfabbro
      Link Parent
      I am definitely waiting for you to be able to get your hands dirty on the source code too, given how incredibly reliant I have already become on your Extended ~ scripts. ;)

      I am definitely waiting for you to be able to get your hands dirty on the source code too, given how incredibly reliant I have already become on your Extended ~ scripts. ;)

      3 votes
  4. xiretza
    Link
    Well, waiting for it to go Free is probably a prerequisite. Not much to do until then, and a lot of questions will likely be answered by simply looking at the source. I think the only one who can...

    Well, waiting for it to go Free is probably a prerequisite. Not much to do until then, and a lot of questions will likely be answered by simply looking at the source.

    I think the only one who can give you useful information that's not already in the docs or on the issue tracker is @Deimos himself, I'm sure he'll show up shortly :)

    2 votes
  5. Powered_by_Whiskey
    Link
    My backend dev days are almost a decade behind me, but I've spent that decade in the process design, metrics analysis, service management world. If there is anything I can help with on that end...

    My backend dev days are almost a decade behind me, but I've spent that decade in the process design, metrics analysis, service management world. If there is anything I can help with on that end please let me know.