Become a Contributor
Diaspora needs you!
Diaspora is an open source project, which means all our code and documentation is available for free to anyone online. It also means that the project only thrives because we have a wonderful set of volunteer collaborators who help out in their free time.
Some of these volunteers are developers and help with the code, which is the "traditional" way to help out an open source project, and is of course critical to the project's success. But the project also needs people who are not developers but who can contribute in other ways. This means that even if you're not a technical wizard, you can help Diaspora in all sorts of ways.
Become a Part of the diaspora* Community!
Diaspora* is an eclectic community. We have artists, teachers, mothers, children, designers, hackers, and activists from all over the world. This is an important aspect of Diaspora*, because if we are going to change the face of the social web, we need to think very differently than our predecessors, both open-source and proprietary.
There are only three requirements to join the Diaspora community.
1. Be excellent to each other.
We all are here to make the internet a better place to share with people on the web.
2. Have fun.
The core devs started this in their free time because it sounded entertaining (and hard). If we can’t have a good time together, shouldn’t you be doing something else?
3. Learn something.
Diaspora is not a simple endeavor, and our mission is not something we can complete in a day, a year, or maybe even a lifetime. That also means it is a constantly evolving, dynamic project with lots of hard problems, all of which require different types of expertise. Every one of our contributors is an expert in something, even you!
Ways to Get Involved
Diaspora needs all sorts of contributions, aside from code itself. If anyone wants to link to getting started on any of these things, that would be wonderful.
Get an account
Start contributing simply by signing up - join one of the many open pods and connect with people. Use the software for yourself and get a feel for it.
Report bugs
If something doesn't work as it should, let the coders know. Learn more about how to report bugs on Github. n Give as much information as you can, such as the name of your pod, the version of diaspora*s code that your pod is running (you might find this in the footer of the pod's pages, or you can find it on Pod Uptime, the operating system name and version number your computer/device is running and the name and version number of the bowser you're using. Before creating a new issue in Github for a bug, please use Github's search facility to check for existing issues concerning the same bug.
Please, always try to give as much specific information as possible when reporting a bug (e.g. pod URL, screenshot, public post URL, and so on). You can find more detailed instructions on the page How to Report a Bug.
Test reported bugs
Another really useful task is to see if you can reproduce a bug that someone else has reported. Try to perform the operation they said they're having problems with, and see if it works, or whether it goes wrong in the way they describe or even in a different way. Give as many details as you can about what you did and what happened, plus all the detailed information about your setup listed above under reporting a bug.
Run a Community Pod
As a decentralized network, Diaspora needs as many pods as possible for people to join. If you have a bit of technical knowledge and would like to run a pod, we'd love to have you as one of our community 'podmins'. Have a look at the FAQ for Pod Maintainers, which includes installation guides for various operating systems and contact us on IRC if you need help or guidance to get you started.
Donate to your Podmin or Developers
At the moment there is no way to contribute financially to Diaspora's development, but you can help your podmin out with their running costs. There should be a link in the side-bar to donate or to contact the podmin. They'd love to hear from you. You can also check the Donations page!
Request new features
If there's something you'd really like to see in diaspora*, let us know. We discuss possible features using Discourse. Before starting a new discussion in Discourse, please use the search facility on Discourse and Github to check for existing issues or discussions. There are a lot of features which have been requested but which we have not been able to implement yet for one reason or another, so please check carefully that the feature you want hasn't been requested yet.
Start Meetups
We are an international movement. If you would like to start a meetup in your area, our Meetup toolbox might be useful for you.
Provide Translations
Diaspora has been translated into over 45 languages. Jonne Haß has been managing all of them. We want to Diaspora to be available in more languages, and of course there is always need for translations of additions to the interface. If you think you can help, we'd love to hear from you. For more info look at Contribute translations. You can also translate this wiki! Check the language pages in the header above.
Write tutorials and user guides
We're keen to add to our tutorials for users. If you would like to help write a tutorial on a subject which hasn't yet been covered, let us know. You can find the source on Github
Add to the Wiki
If you feel like any important information or translation is missing in this wiki, be bold and just add it! If you need help with the wiki syntax, here is a cheatsheet.
Grassroots Community Projects
See the list of grassroots community projects.
More Ways to Get Involved:
- Spreading the word - tell people how good Diaspora is!
- Blogging about Diaspora
- Writing copy
- Writing documentaion (updating and expanding this wiki, for example)
- Making how-to guides/videos
- Designing, and creating user interface work/mockups
- Helping others installing and maintain pods
- Making fan art
Spread the Word
If you don't have the technical skills to contribute code to our project but know someone who you think does and might be interested in getting involved, tell them about Diaspora! Tell them what you love about Diaspora, why you think it's a worthwhile project to contribute to, and send them our way. We'd love to hear from any developers who would like to help us improve Diaspora's software.
These are just a few ideas, and we love people who want to donate their skills to make our community more amazing.
How to Get Started
Come and talk to us. The best ways to get in touch in real time is IRC. Tell us what you're interested in working on - code, tutorials, feature ideas, mockups, running a pod, helping with the wiki, other - and we can help you figure out how to get going.