Closed igorsteinmacher closed 5 years ago
igorsteinmacher
commented
5 years ago From #8 (closed to merge this one: Make sure that newcomers' first attempts to contribute (through conversations or code) get a response quickly so that they believe someone is paying attention.
Q: does having a test suite newcomers can run easily count as providing feedback quickly? It isn't personal or human, but it does tell people whether they're on the right track.
dsholler
commented
5 years ago Perhaps the most obvious of the methods for making newcomers feel welcome in an open source project is to greet them with kindness and politeness. A newcomer’s first impression of a project will influence their perceptions of the project’s overall environment and, in turn, their likelihood to sustain engagement with the project. Karl Fogel (2013: 10) expressed this sentiment in his book Producing Open Source Software: How to Run a Successful Free Software Project: “If a project doesn’t make a good first impression, newcomers may wait a long time before giving it a second chance." Other authors [2,3,4] have empirically evaluated and confirmed the importance of kind and polite social environments in open source projects. Therefore, extra steps (beyond following the basic guidelines set forth in the code of conduct) should be taken to foster a positive feeling. Several approaches can be taken, including:
In applying all of these approaches, projects should dedicate one or two members to serve as a point-of-contact for each newcomer. Designating a point-of-contact may help to lower the newcomer’s hesitancy to ask questions, particularly when they are told from the outset that there are “no dumb questions” in the community.
[1] Fogel, Karl. Producing Open Source Software: How to Run a Successful Free Software Project. O’Reilly Media, 2013. Available from: https://producingoss.com/en/producingoss.pdf [2] SINGH, Vandana, Newcomer integration and learning in technical support communities for open source software, in 17th ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work, 2012, pp. 65–74. [3] STEINMACHER, Igor; WIESE, Igor; CHAVES, Ana Paula; GEROSA, Marco Aurélio. Why do newcomers abandon open source software projects?. In: 6th International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (CHASE 2013), 2013. p. 25-32. [4] STEINMACHER, Igor; PINTO, Gustavo H. L.; WIESE, Igor Scaliante; GEROSA, Marco Aurélio. Almost There: A Study on Quasi-Contributors in Open-Source Software Projects. In: 40th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2018), Gothenburg, Sweden. 2018. p. 1-12
Creating a welcoming environment from the social perspective may help newcomers to feel more part of the team, and foster follow ups and future collaboration. It is important to make a first impression, hand-holding and providing positive criticism. As mentioned by Karl Fogel in his book [1] "if a project doesn’t make a good first impression, newcomers may wait a long time before giving it a second chance." (I really like this quote)
Some previous work [2, 3, 4] evidenced that from different perspectives.
[1] FOGEL, Karl. Producing Open Source Software: How to Run a Successful Free Software Project, O’Reilly Media, 2013. [2] SINGH, Vandana, Newcomer integration and learning in technical support communities for open source software, in 17th ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work, 2012, pp. 65–74. [3] STEINMACHER, Igor; WIESE, Igor; CHAVES, Ana Paula; GEROSA, Marco Aurélio. Why do newcomers abandon open source software projects?. In: 6th International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (CHASE 2013), 2013. p. 25-32. [4] STEINMACHER, Igor; PINTO, Gustavo H. L.; WIESE, Igor Scaliante; GEROSA, Marco Aurélio. Almost There: A Study on Quasi-Contributors in Open-Source Software Projects. In: 40th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2018), Gothenburg, Sweden. 2018. p. 1-12