Of growl and changelogs
I'm pleased to see Growl has a changelog for 0.6 and 0.6.1 up now, and it's also included with the .dmg. You can also keep track of what's going in via their ticket system, but hopefully the whole situation will improve -- on VT they at least actually said what was fixed in 0.6.1.
I could write volumes on why these types of things are so important to a project, but I think they understand the importance and it's just not where their head is... If you dig the project and are looking to get your feet wet, I'd have to imagine they could use help writing up documentation and the like. I've seen people stumbling with understanding how priorities in Growl and such can work for them, and it's not really necessary.
Actually if there is any OSS project you use and like, I'd have to imagine they can use your help in these types of things. Remember, these are people with day jobs, and they're doing this for the love of it, and when they get home they're gravitating towards what they love and not the tedium... even if that tedium is what makes for a well-rounded project.
However, what's tedious to a programmer coming home and wanting to unwind may be right up your alley. You may not know how to code, but you may know HTML, and you may be able to translate what is going on behind the scenes into a changelog, or write documentation on using the new features, take screenshots, etc. It's also a good way to get plugged in.
The project has to allow for these people of course, or rather take a few cycles to setup a system that allows for them. Smart projects do.
I could also write volumes on the importance of using RSS on your news page, which one of my favorite projects (AdiumX) is guilty of not including, but it looks like there is movement there too. Hopefully, lord knows I've bugged them enough about it.
The weird thing is the idea that by not having an RSS feed, you'll increase the traffic to the site as people check in to see if anything is new. I've heard it from more than one person, but it just doesn't really work that way anymore...
Posted by drunkenbatmanMarch 02, 2005, at 02:42 PM
Comments (2)
Posted by: Craig Ingram at March 2, 2005 05:40 PM
These past couple of days I've been trying to think of a "project" to keep me busy (because there's really not too much work for a second semester senior with a job offer...). It definitely seems like a much better idea to try and get involved in documentation/website stuff for an existing one! Thanks for the bump of motivation and idea :)
while there is no RSS feed on the Adium main page, the commit tracking system has an RSS feed, and there is a built in update check... It doesnt exactly follow the blog, but at least we dont try to hide it from you...