this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2023
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Big reporters/Testers deserve some props as well. Testing the code on a variety of different situations is how software gets stable, and I can't do that myself. And properly and concisely describing a bug or glitch is usually the key to getting it resolved quickly.
Often the most difficult part of solving it is being able to reproduce it / find the exact situation in which the problem occurs.
People who write documentation, tutorials, and offer help to newbies are also important. We as a community really need to highlight that you don't need to be a coder to contribute to open source. We should set examples how sharing of knowledge is just as important.
Hmm. I have been moving towards more and more open source. But my ability to code is very limited. Is there any kind of guide on how to get involved when you can't code?
Bug reporting and doco are both very useful, and mostly don't require coding ability. If you find a bug, report it. Use as much detail as you can, ideally with instructions to replicate the bug. "XYZ doesn't work" is useless, "XYZ will crash when used with a invalid file, file to replicate is attached" is gold. Working out exactly what detail is an art, but the more detail you give the Dev, the more chance they have to solve it quickly and easily.
If you struggled to set something up and the documentation wasn't clear, update it. Devs are notoriously bad at writing docs, and most will accept doco PR. (I repeatedly walk people through the setup of my project, because the docs are out of date and I'm too lazy/busy to update them. If someone does this for you, write it down, and see if you can insert it into their docs for them). Anything you do to help new users (which saves the Dev time), is a net positive.
Lastly, coding may seem daunting, but there are tons of resources, and many (but not all) Devs are happy to advise/mentor. Adding small features (button to do X) may be very easy. Some Devs will happily walk you through it if you ask (some may not, depends on the Dev).
https://www.browserstack.com/guide/how-to-write-a-bug-report
https://www.writethedocs.org/guide/writing/beginners-guide-to-docs/
Thank you! This really does point me in the right direction.
And as an aside, I absolutely love how welcoming the open source community is.
Oh, absolutely, didn't think of them. My personal experiences have been with good bug reporters, which is why I focused on that, but really anything that takes the load off the Dev is a net positive.
Indeed. The people who are active testers are people I respect immensely.
I use custom ROMs on my devices and it always surprised me, just how much people help out. It's really really amazing.