I wonder if improving contributor UX could encourage contributions

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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.
Using Scribus 1.5.8 openSUSE 15.4
Advanced hobbyist

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!