CS University project: specific problem Forgejo/codeberg or related ecosystem is currently facing #129

zareck commented 2024年03月08日 18:30:26 +01:00

Hi! My name is Cássio Zareck. I'm member from the collaborators team and I had contributed to Forgejo before fixing some bugs and migration-related features and also on test coverage. At my university we're currently making an extension project related to spend the semester solving some specific problem a Company/Team/Project is currently facing, technical or not. Since my professor liked about my OSS engagement and also Forgejo is a great project with an excellent community I want to ask for mantainers and people involved some specific topic we can explore.

Some problems I'm aware:

• Bring more contributors
• Improve test coverage on the main codebase
• Maybe refactor old code (we had a discussion on matrix chat trying to figure out what integrations tests were doing then we realized some redundant code)
• I think spams were being a trouble but I'm not too sure

Please cite other problems you are aware or choose one I said and let's elect the most painful problem. So me, my classmates and professor can use robust metodologies through the semester to figure out possible solutions and engaje more into the project.

Hi! My name is Cássio Zareck. I'm member from the collaborators team and I had contributed to Forgejo before fixing some bugs and migration-related features and also on test coverage. At my university we're currently making an extension project related to spend the semester solving some specific problem a Company/Team/Project is currently facing, technical or not. Since my professor liked about my OSS engagement and also Forgejo is a great project with an excellent community I want to ask for mantainers and people involved some specific topic we can explore. Some problems I'm aware: - Bring more contributors - Improve test coverage on the main codebase - Maybe refactor old code (we had a discussion on matrix chat trying to figure out what integrations tests were doing then we realized some redundant code) - I think spams were being a trouble but I'm not too sure Please cite other problems you are aware or choose one I said and let's elect the most painful problem. So me, my classmates and professor can use robust metodologies through the semester to figure out possible solutions and engaje more into the project.

Ghost commented 2024年03月08日 18:48:19 +01:00

Bring more contributors

It is a very good fit for a one semester project. There is no active or organized effort in Forgejo to recruit contributors. You can create one from scratch, bootstrap a new team and you will make a difference really soon. My advice: start with fixing typos in the documentation. They are the best low hanging fruit and there always are typos in the documentation 😄 Then create issues about existing typos but do not fix them: they are the low hanging fruit for your recruits. It is a chance for them to get familiar with the community and the contribution process, before diving into more serious matters.

> Bring more contributors It is a very good fit for a one semester project. There is no active or organized effort in Forgejo to recruit contributors. You can create one from scratch, bootstrap a new team and you will make a difference really soon. My advice: start with fixing typos in the documentation. They are the best low hanging fruit and there **always** are typos in the documentation 😄 Then create issues about existing typos but do not fix them: they are the low hanging fruit for your recruits. It is a chance for them to get familiar with the community and the contribution process, before diving into more serious matters.

zareck commented 2024年03月08日 22:02:17 +01:00

@dachary That's good. Bring new contributors seems a good topic to explore and you already gave an idea on how to increase the community, by giving them the opportunity to start. I also have other ideas such as some mentorship, maybe more filtering for easy issues or even by codeberg assistance since it has a mutual relation, of course is not that simple since we need to always considere Forgejo philsophy (foss), capabilities (money support) and other variables, this is where we will make a case study and maybe try execute some possible solution.

Anyway would like to hear more opinions, what do you @earl-warren think about? Would like to hear different options, besides bring new contributors do you have another topic in mind?

@dachary That's good. Bring new contributors seems a good topic to explore and you already gave an idea on how to increase the community, by giving them the opportunity to start. I also have other ideas such as some mentorship, maybe more filtering for easy issues or even by codeberg assistance since it has a mutual relation, of course is not that simple since we need to always considere Forgejo philsophy (foss), capabilities (money support) and other variables, this is where we will make a case study and maybe try execute some possible solution. Anyway would like to hear more opinions, what do you @earl-warren think about? Would like to hear different options, besides bring new contributors do you have another topic in mind?

earl-warren commented 2024年03月09日 05:04:03 +01:00

Bringing new contributors will help solve the biggest challenge Forgejo is facing, there is no doubt about that. It has been discussed about six month ago but it is not an organized effort yet. Doing that requires a rare combination of skills that are not all technical, as you pointed out @zareck. Only you can know if it is a good fit.

Spams and refactoring are more difficult, significantly.

If there is a preference for exclusively technical tasks, writing tests to improve coverage is a great idea. It is fulfilling and good low hanging fruit because there are a lot of areas in the codebase that completely lack even the most basic unit tests. They are extremely useful as they will help discover regressions that cannot be detected with the current tests. There is a longer discussion on what happens when automated tests are insufficient: users pay the price.

Bringing new contributors will help solve the biggest challenge Forgejo is facing, there is no doubt about that. It [has been discussed](https://codeberg.org/forgejo/discussions/issues/53) about six month ago but it is not an organized effort yet. Doing that requires a rare combination of skills that are not all technical, as you pointed out @zareck. Only you can know if it is a good fit. Spams and refactoring are more difficult, significantly. If there is a preference for exclusively technical tasks, writing tests to improve coverage is a **great** idea. It is fulfilling and good low hanging fruit because there are a lot of areas in the codebase that completely lack even the most basic unit tests. They are extremely useful as they will help discover regressions that cannot be detected with the current tests. There is a [longer discussion](https://codeberg.org/forgejo/discussions/issues/103) on what happens when automated tests are insufficient: users pay the price.