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If you don't have coding skills, why don't you help foss software by making it more user friendly instead? (lemmy.giftedmc.com)

submitted 10 months ago by haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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Disclaimer

Not trying to blame anyone here. I‘m just taking an idea I‘ve read and spinning it further:

Intro

A lot of people use free open source software (foss), Linux being one of them. But a lot less actually help make this software. If I ask them why, they always say „I don’t have the coding skills!“.

Maybe its worth pointing out that you don‘t need them. In a lot of cases it’s better to not have any so you can see stuff with a „consumer view“.

In that situation you can file issues on github and similar places. You can write descriptions that non technical people can understand. You can help translate and so on, all depending on your skills.

Other reasons?

I‘d really like to know so the foss community can talk about making it worthwile for non coders to participate.

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[–] bear_delune@beehaw.org 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I have a background in Games, UX, Service and Product design and I would really like to contribute to FOSS projects but have no idea how to

I’m unfamiliar in the etiquette of GitHub and how I could contribute my skills

[–] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 1 points 10 months ago

Happy new year. I took a couple days off from socials to recuperate.

Those are important questions that youre asking. Like in any team, its about achieving a goal together. The goal often is as important as the cooperation. If you see someones mistakes or think this could go better, its important to help them understand. Obviously, this doesnt always go without a hitch.

Just go to your favorite github page that uses stuff you understand (programming language, technique or whatever) and look if there are issues listed. You can check for pull requests (community made patches) and if they actually get pulled. If yes, find a issue to work on, create a branch, fix something and create a pull request.

If you need more help understanding this google github tutorial or first pull request. There are a lot of repos that auto accept your pull request to show you how its done.

Good luck! :)