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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 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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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[–] cashews_best_nut 32 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm a programmer and I find dealing with other programmers frustrating and pointless if you discuss anything that's not programming related.

They'll happily discuss algorithms or language paradigms for hours but if you mention design, UI/X, marketing, etc they shut you down claiming some greater-technical reason for the feature.

Lemmy is a good, recent example. As part of being a web dev I've also done a lot of SEM. The devs have a Github issue for making readable URLs. They completely refused to consider it claiming other technical requirements for not allowing it. Any arguments outside the narrow technical reasons are discounted. So what if readable URLs will help people find the site through Google easier (because Google will better index the site). It breaks X feature and we don't see a need. No discussion and no listening.

If devs don't see a strict technical need for something they ignore it at best and at worst they insult you for being an idiot.

Hubris and ignorance make it a PITA to deal with them.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Ohhh I know that one! This happened to me a lot already. Some devs are completely socially incompetent although brillant programmers. I mostly call them out on their bs if they start it. Happened a couple times in this comment section alone.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

This is why I'm so glad my degree forced us to have UI and UX classes to graduate. I definitely picked up a lot from those that have helped me be a better developer overall