I wonder if improving contributor UX could encourage contributions

[NathanUp]

Reading this interview from LibreArts with some of the Inkscape team has me thinking - they mention that switching comms to RocketChat (although I personally prefer Matrix, which a lot of KDE projects use) and moving to GitLab were major factors in attracting and retaining new contributors. I do web development, but I have no idea how to use SVN - I have a feeling that there are people who would like to contribute but are just too intimidated by the old-school workflow and comms. Switching to a more publicly accessible and user-friendly communication platform would also likely quell some of the incessant "is Scribus dead?" posts all over the internet as people could see that things are happening more easily.

I only mention this because I love Scribus; it's a tremendously important part of the FLOSS graphic design landscape, and I'm so scared that it will disappear if either of the contributors can no longer work on the project.

[a.l.e]

hi nathan

i can only agree with the core message in your post.

i just want to add some additional information:

- there is a gitlab mirror of the scribus code (https://gitlab.com/scribus/scribus)
- there is a github mirror of the scribus code (https://github.com/scribusproject/scribus)
- both can easily be found with a search engine.
- if a community grows around them, the gitlab mirror could be used for reviewing patches (but you should not expect reviews from the team for now)
- you can join the irc channel with the irc to matrix bridge (works in element)
- there is a (mostly dormant; not official) scribus matrix channel

voilà, if people want to do things there are ways... of course, it needs somebody crazy enough to start the fire : - ) (without burning their fingers...)

[AdmFubar]

Adobe prolly feels threatened from from the project when their stock tanked last year. Trying to spread a lil fear that the high quality  free competitor is dead. I've seen this type of hype done before against other types of free software. Dont get taken in by marketing from the competition.

[MrB]

Gitlab and Github are not located in the EU, which we find unfortunate due to software patent law issues.
So we'd have to self-host git, which we can, but time available is spent on code. We're preparing 1.6.0, as well as spending a good amount of time on 1.7.0 (indigo ui integration with the author, and at the moment, working out podofo 0.10.0 compatibility).
SVN is super easy... you only need 2-3 commands, but yes, its less well known these days.
As for chat, we use IRC... but could consider other things. I started to set up Discord, but got distracted by code instead. Someone to maintain those other things would be great for the project too!

[NathanUp]

Gitlab and Github are not located in the EU, which we find unfortunate due to software patent law issues.
So we'd have to self-host git, which we can, but time available is spent on code. We're preparing 1.6.0, as well as spending a good amount of time on 1.7.0 (indigo ui integration with the author, and at the moment, working out podofo 0.10.0 compatibility).
SVN is super easy... you only need 2-3 commands, but yes, its less well known these days.
As for chat, we use IRC... but could consider other things. I started to set up Discord, but got distracted by code instead. Someone to maintain those other things would be great for the project too!

Apologies for the delay in my response; I don't think I got a notification from the thread, so I just saw this now!

I'm no expert, but I do run a couple of Yunohost servers for personal use. If the team was open to it, I'd be happy to set up and admin another for the project; it could be used to host something like Gitea (I host an instance already on one of my servers), a Matrix server, or many other useful things. I'd just need a domain and a Debian 11 VPS with root access.

[a.l.e]

hi nathan

thanks for your offer!

at work we're using our own instance of gitlab.
in a perfect world, that would my preferred solution: it's comfortable to use.
but it's also pretty heavy (or the server is heavily underpowered).

for many years now, i have been working with both github and gitlab, and (for the low expectations i have) they both work more than ok for me.
of course, i would prefer using one of both since they would allow so many people to discover scribus (mainly in the case of github) and make contributing (and reporting issues) easier: no need for a specific account and a well known UI.

but craig has set the context and i agree with you that gitea could be a good alternative.

i think that the biggest challenge is to set up a CI and manage the shared resources.

gitea seems to be lightweight enough and has a good features set.

one important thing from my side: in the case of scribus, i would refrain from using yunohost: it's probably preferable to directly install it on the server (the attack surface is much lower...).

and now a few more inputs:

• i think that the final goal should be to install gitea (or another git solution) on the scribus own server
• the solution should first be tested on a different server
• if you (or somebody else) can provide a server (i don't recall: does the scribus server run on linux or freebsd?) for the tests that would make things easier
• how to migrate the mantis bug tracker content to gitea?
• what are the resources needed (HD, RAM, CPU)?
• what are the needs for setting up the continuous integration?
• we should probably setup a test mirror (in a similar way, as it has been done for github and gitlab)
• i can help in setting up the server
• an ok from craig and jean is needed before the tests are started (we don't need one more platform that is not officially in use).

all in all, i would be really glad, if scribus could switch to git (and a modern software management platform) once scribus 1.6 is released!

have a wonderful day
a.l.e

[NathanUp]

Unfortunately, I'd only really be able to help with Yunohost when it comes to server setup and administration. While I am a daily desktop GNU/Linux user, I'm not a professional admin, so I use Yunohost because it makes setting up multiple publicly accessible applications in a reasonably secure way possible for someone like me. It comes with a pre-configured firewall, fail2ban, et cetera, and on my instances I also change the SSH port and switch to key based authentication. Beyond the inherent increase in attack surface that comes with installing multiple applications on one server, I think the only big differences between Yunohost and any other Debian server are likely the user portal and the web admin / API, and the latter can be disabled.

All that said, I'm happy to pitch in my limited skills where I can be useful.

[a.l.e]

hi nathan

yeah, it might then make sense to install the server with yunohost and then collect some experiences...

but without a statement from jean and/or craig i would not go on with this project (since the scribus code can already be got through git from both github and gitlab).

[NathanUp]

Got it; I'll stand by!