Revision as of 02:50, 11 February 2018 by Ngraham(talk | contribs)(Added a "start here" section featuring specific projects that have created user-friendly new contributor pages)
Welcome to the KDE Community! By joining our team, you will be part of an international effort by thousands of people working to deliver a stunning Free Software computing experience. You will meet new friends, learn new skills and make a difference to millions of users while working with people from all around the globe. This page will give you a brief introduction to things everyone in KDE should know, and help you get started with contributing.
We want to make sure that the KDE Community remains a welcoming and friendly place where people can feel comfortable. We ask you to abide by the KDE Community Code of Conduct when interacting with the rest of the KDE Community.
Start here!
KDE wants to make it easy to get involved! Here are some beginner-friendly projects with a variety of opportunities to contribute in many different ways:
If you've found a problem with a piece of KDE software, report it so the developers can fix it! QA is critically important to ensure quality, and you can be involved in an effort to make sure that our users are as happy with the final products as possible. Find out more about bug reporting.
The KDE BugSquad is the first line of attack for bugs. By keeping track of incoming bug reports, verifying them, improving them and cleaning them up, you will help developers figure out what bugs they need to work on and help them get the information they need to fix them. You don't need any programming experience to participate, but triaging bugs is a perfect introduction if you want to eventually become a developer and don't feel like your programming experience is good enough yet. Find out more about helping squash bugs in KDE software
By becoming a developer in the KDE community, you can affect millions by improving world-class software used around the globe. You'll learn portable, industry-standard skills like C++, Qt, and CMake, and collaborate with people from all around the world. It's a challenging and fun experience. Find out more about becoming a KDE developer.
Are you fluent in multiple languages? By contributing your translations of the text in the user interfaces of KDE software, you can make it more pleasant for you to use, and open it up to millions of potential new users. Find out more about becoming a KDE translator.
Whether you are an artist, a designer, or just someone with an interest in how people interact with software, the KDE community needs you! The VDG makes KDE software both beautiful and usable by helping teams design and refine their user interfaces. This includes creating icons and themes, as well as thinking and researching how to help users do what they are trying to do. By joining this team, you can help make KDE's users happier and more productive. Find out more about joining the VDG.
Even with the best-designed software, users will need documentation to help them do what they want and get the most out of it. The KDE Community values good-quality documentation, and those who write it. The work of this team has one of the biggest impacts on end-users. Find out more about joining the KDE documentation team.
Do you know how to get the word out on the street? Marketing and promotion of KDE is done through a mostly grassroots effort. By being a part of the team, you will be spreading the word of KDE to people that would not otherwise have heard of the amazing things we make. You'll be part of a great team of people who are moving the world! Find out more about spreading the word about KDE.
Part of reaching as wide an audience as possible includes making KDE software easy to use for people with visual, auditory and motor disabilities. This is an important area that unfortunately does not get as much love as it deserves. Whether you are familiar with the techniques and technologies involved in this or are just keen to help out, your help will be enthusiastically welcomed. Find out more about making KDE software more accessible.
KDE is a mostly volunteer community made up of people just like you! But not everything in this world is free--including web and file hosting costs, airfare to KDE events, and even hiring some full-time developers. If you would like to help KDE purchase the goods and services necessary to continue producing amazing free software, consider donating. Find out more about making a financial donation to KDE.
Part of being in a community is talking to the other members. KDE members use a variety of different venues to communicate, depending on the topic.
To track work, such as offering a patch for review, updating a website, or coordinating a promotional campaign, KDE uses Phabricator. Sign into Phabricator with the username and password for your identity.kde.org account; if you don't have one, sign up for one here. Then then return to https://phabricator.kde.org, click the "Log In" button at the top of the page, and enter the username and password for your KDE Identity account. More information about Phabricator is available here.
To start a short, goal-driven discussion, use Internet Relay Chat or Telegram, depending on your preference.
To start a long-term, open-ended discussion, mailing lists are best. You don't need to subscribe to them all; just a few will do. A good mailing list to subscribe to as a new member of the KDE Community is kde-community. You will need to subscribe before you can send emails to the list.
The links in the #Ways to contribute section will take you to pages with more specific information, including how to get in touch with specific teams.
Mentoring
KDE has a variety of programmes to introduce new contributors to KDE. These include external programmes that we participate in like the Google Summer of Code and the Outreach Program for Women, as well as KDE's own programmes, such as Season of KDE. We also maintain an informal list of people who are willing to help out any newcomers. You can find an overview on the Mentoring page.
