Hello all, I've already contributed a bit, but as I was reading Mike McGrath's "How to be a successful contributor" Wiki article[1], I realized that I hadn't really introduced myself. I also realized that I'd like a sponsor/mentor. This is my attempt to remedy both of those. ;)

First of all, some quick facts[2]: My name is Aaron Faanes. My FAS account and IRC nick is dafrito. I live in the central timezone.

However, I decided to request a wiki mentor since the wiki seems to be where I've found my groove. I've done some writing[3], some template work[4], and I'd be interested to continue that work. I've also made some suggestions (some good, some not-so-good ;) ), and I'd like to work with a sponsor to guide me towards the ideas that have consensus and interest. I've also had an interest in being an admin for the Wiki, so a sponsor could help see if I'm up for that task as well.

I'd like to start small. I feel like there's a tendency, at least for myself, to dive into too much and get overwhelmed, so I feel like a sponsor would help ensure that things don't get too crazy. As far as timing is concerned, I can commit two to three afternoons (10-15 hours) a week.

Thank you for your consideration, Aaron Faanes

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.14 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Fedora - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iQIcBAEBAgAGBQJMN12oAAoJEDbiLlqcYamxaNgP/jPi9NUazhxyPGZed/jIAT1Q FZvPCO7FLYgQdGfpdexKtgWuxntDopR2HWvcs8OUPcz7lMPjyesNB2LrWfR0CLJV GmULcJ+5w+3xBLOscGnyUCglG/3S0CSTwH5ujeuvBNDnybl5N4vlWlqu12lcSV5j Baa0Os8igJzMhMSZhgDhHqaL6VEyBuYANiOv9Fq2Fu5xuZFNYQAYJaeBrlmzRsGv daXi3QCMo6z63RsadqTxeJwYYZNOTNlfCxKjVhXKvl1cGk/51hioU6O9gd5pv/HN A1dI7ed80BMBPBzB0+FA/R9aQmWAodNGDMHMXj/jC5jW4u9jz/g0jbuJwJi4Lmcm mYtTRZhiRb2ueNcSwCYmcIvVUHne5e8jt9mE12HXabVcxU1ecmYZ5wFXuoG7BpVt 29XYLAoGUiKiCDZNa9+G41c0zXtHu54WI2BhYEvw/9+fyofEfFrvppzaFEURmoEG DVgvtBsbKWbJrar38XLvb/Fobo3t0c9FqkphRKNEr+SgMiaao0O3zL1nqzVYfLla Bt++KRq0z8DH0zACZlFbEniZrxkpJLElvqt7tCVMW/LAPzfwMT+5W+KAvad9eBfF QMEkxhDSkduktOrUAUgnRLTyxexnCK756Yyr2RUt6o6uBhejssCKENbusRLXoZdA I7bsjAP28yYw7AXjia/P =jWTT -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

On Fri, Jul 09, 2010 at 01:34:33PM -0400, Eric Sparks Christensen wrote: > We actually have pages that "need love"[0] which would probably be a > good place to start.  If you have any questions for a particular page > you can use the "Talk" page to discuss changes or to find out what needs > to be changed. This is a great place to look for work, but is by no means extensive and also doesn't say what needs fixed, so pages tend to just fester there. I wonder if there's a better way to handle this.

-- Ian Weller <ian(a)ianweller.org&gt; ()  ascii ribbon campaign - against html e-mail /\  www.asciiribbon.org   - against proprietary attachments _______________________________________________ wiki mailing list wiki(a)lists.fedoraproject.org https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki

On Thu, Jul 08, 2010 at 07:13:51PM -0500, Aaron Faanes wrote: > I've already contributed a bit, but as I was reading Mike McGrath's > "How to be a successful contributor" Wiki article[1], I realized that > I hadn't really introduced myself. I also realized that I'd like a > sponsor/mentor. This is my attempt to remedy both of those. ;) > > First of all, some quick facts[2]: My name is Aaron Faanes. My FAS > account and IRC nick is dafrito. I live in the central timezone. > > I've been using *nix in some form for the past few years. I ran > FreeBSD a few years ago, then Ubuntu for about a year. I saw a talk by > Greg Kroah-Hartman that praised Fedora and Red Hat for their > commitment to upstream, so I switched and have been using it almost > exclusively ever since. > > I'm a jack-of-all-trades sort of person. I've got a few years of > coding experience (python, java, lua, bash, javascript) working on the > tooling/docs/support side of things. Consequently, I feel like I could > have posted this sponsor request to the test, docs, and websites > mailing lists all with similar levels of enthusiasm. > > However, I decided to request a wiki mentor since the wiki seems to be > where I've found my groove. I've done some writing[3], some template > work[4], and I'd be interested to continue that work. I've also made > some suggestions (some good, some not-so-good ;) ), and I'd like to > work with a sponsor to guide me towards the ideas that have consensus > and interest. I've also had an interest in being an admin for the > Wiki, so a sponsor could help see if I'm up for that task as well. > > I'd like to start small. I feel like there's a tendency, at least for > myself, to dive into too much and get overwhelmed, so I feel like a > sponsor would help ensure that things don't get too crazy. As far as > timing is concerned, I can commit two to three afternoons (10-15 > hours) a week. So the interesting difference that the wiki has compared to most groups in Fedora is that just by signing the CLA, you have write access, and the only other levels of access are "administrator" and "czar" (and the latter is just the former with a funny name and hat). Therefore, we really don't have a mentoring process -- hardly anything has to be handled by admins except for deleting pages[1]. I don't know if we should have a mentoring/sponsorship process for becoming an administrator and being able to do more grunt work. That's about the only thing I can think of that would be necessary, because you would be a great candidate for that, along with many others. Another thing we need that the mentoring process provides other groups is an easy way to find work. We don't really have that. We should have that. I don't know how to implement it well, because all I have in my head is vague ideas of what the wiki should look like.

Thoughts, all? [1] Not that I've done a good job of that. :) -- Ian Weller <ian(a)ianweller.org&gt; ()  ascii ribbon campaign - against html e-mail /\  www.asciiribbon.org   - against proprietary attachments _______________________________________________ wiki mailing list wiki(a)lists.fedoraproject.org https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki

On Fri, Jul 09, 2010 at 05:24:02PM -0500, Aaron Faanes wrote: > I think what I'm looking for is, honestly, permission to do work. I > know Eric mentioned to "be bold" and that edits can be reverted, so > let me explain: I feel, however wrongly it may be, that the Fedora > Wiki has a much stronger sense of "ownership" than other wikis. > There's also a much larger variance between types of content, so as an > editor, I don't know what's intentional (like style or tone or layout) > and what's simply not touched up. I feel like a mentor would help make > these no-go- or draft-first-zones more obvious, and perhaps make the > avenues for making changes more clear. Maybe I just need to speak up > more in #fedora-docs ;) This happens a lot. It happens a lot to me, too. One thing that might be helpful is to create a subpage of your user page and list pages that you would like to work on, and reasons why you haven't yet (would like to ask the page editor what the heck is going on, etc.). Then, immediately, send mail to the editor. :) Long ago we discussed page maintainership and providing a template for people to easily say "I 'own' this page, please ask me about huge changes." I (and a few others) was against it (I think? ;) ) because there shouldn't be a clear line of ownership for wiki pages, except user pages, because it's *everybody's* wiki.

So. If you're worried that you might upset somebody, ask the editor, and make a note of it somewhere. If you're not, fix it anyway. Consider this a blanket permission for everybody.

-- Ian Weller <ian(a)ianweller.org&gt; ()  ascii ribbon campaign - against html e-mail /\  www.asciiribbon.org   - against proprietary attachments _______________________________________________ wiki mailing list wiki(a)lists.fedoraproject.org https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki

I think what I'm looking for is, honestly, permission to do work. I know Eric mentioned to "be bold" and that edits can be reverted, so let me explain: I feel, however wrongly it may be, that the Fedora Wiki has a much stronger sense of "ownership" than other wikis. There's also a much larger variance between types of content, so as an editor, I don't know what's intentional (like style or tone or layout) and what's simply not touched up. I feel like a mentor would help make these no-go- or draft-first-zones more obvious, and perhaps make the avenues for making changes more clear. Maybe I just need to speak up more in #fedora-docs ;)