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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 11 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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[–] agent_flounder@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

Totally. Everyone has a threshold of pain in the ass above which they don't care enough to contribute.

Some want to contribute but find that having to use git, let's say, is too big a hurdle, otherwise they'd totally contribute. Ok, so lower the barrier to entry. Make it less of a pain in the ass.

You don't need to make it so easy that any idiot on earth can submit changes or the project will be flooded with bullshit probably. But for those who would otherwise be dedicated contributors but for that one thing, fix the one thing.