I've encountered several type designers who are entirely new to GitHub and who have unintentionally made early missteps about repo set-up.
Of course I can't say for certain where they ran into contradictory advice,but I think there are phrasing issues with the hosting.html page and the upstream.html page that could, at least, be clarified to remove potential obstacles to understanding.
On hosting.html, in the GitHub Workflow section, the first bullet point says "If you are working on a new project, you will need to [create a new repository] using our template outlined below." --- but the link on "create a new repository" does not take readers to instructions on how to use the project template. It instead takes them to generic 'new repo' docs from GitHub.
I think this is a likely place where new designers are getting misdirected, if someone has shared the link to these pages with them.
Three paragraphs later on that page, it also says "you will need to [clone] the repository" and also links to a generic GitHub page about cloning, specifically about CLI commands.
I think this is also likely a place where new designers are facing potential confusion. "Clone" has a very specific reserved-word command meaning in git lingo, but if you don't already know it, it is easily misunderstood as "duplicate" in a much more general sense. When a designer has already created an empty repo because they followed the link on the first bullet point, they may take the phrase to mean "look at the project template repository and make your new repository look like it."
Particularly if the generic "clone" page in the second link mentioned here doesn't appear relevant to them, or deals with CLI issues that they are not prepared to delve into (which is understandable).
To get to the recommended fix, because this is long already, if the prescribed workflow for new designers is that they need to instantiate a new repo by using the "Use this template" button on the project-template repo, then the instructions should tell them to do that directly, and tell them that first — leaving any other general info links to GitHub docs for later (if they are necessary at all, which they might not necessarily be).
It is probably also worth avoiding the casual usage of "clone" in the second case; if you can tell people the exact command to use, that's great, but the project-template button doesn't say "Clone" and if they're new to the whole thing, it'd likely be more apropos to lead into that topic with a GitHub Desktop example, not CLI stuff.
I've encountered several type designers who are entirely new to GitHub and who have unintentionally made early missteps about repo set-up.
Of course I can't say for certain where they ran into contradictory advice,but I think there are phrasing issues with the hosting.html page and the upstream.html page that could, at least, be clarified to remove potential obstacles to understanding.
On hosting.html, in the GitHub Workflow section, the first bullet point says "If you are working on a new project, you will need to [create a new repository] using our template outlined below." --- but the link on "create a new repository" does not take readers to instructions on how to use the project template. It instead takes them to generic 'new repo' docs from GitHub.
I think this is a likely place where new designers are getting misdirected, if someone has shared the link to these pages with them.
Three paragraphs later on that page, it also says "you will need to [clone] the repository" and also links to a generic GitHub page about cloning, specifically about CLI commands.
I think this is also likely a place where new designers are facing potential confusion. "Clone" has a very specific reserved-word command meaning in git lingo, but if you don't already know it, it is easily misunderstood as "duplicate" in a much more general sense. When a designer has already created an empty repo because they followed the link on the first bullet point, they may take the phrase to mean "look at the project template repository and make your new repository look like it."
Particularly if the generic "clone" page in the second link mentioned here doesn't appear relevant to them, or deals with CLI issues that they are not prepared to delve into (which is understandable).
To get to the recommended fix, because this is long already, if the prescribed workflow for new designers is that they need to instantiate a new repo by using the "Use this template" button on the project-template repo, then the instructions should tell them to do that directly, and tell them that first — leaving any other general info links to GitHub docs for later (if they are necessary at all, which they might not necessarily be).
It is probably also worth avoiding the casual usage of "clone" in the second case; if you can tell people the exact command to use, that's great, but the project-template button doesn't say "Clone" and if they're new to the whole thing, it'd likely be more apropos to lead into that topic with a GitHub Desktop example, not CLI stuff.