Now we have more than 4k apps in F-Droid’s main repo. We’d like to have more contributors to help keep the repo up-to-date. As a user, do you ever contributor to F-Droid?
If not, what prevent you from contributing to F-Droid when you find that
an app is out-of-date
an app has an Anti-Feature not tagged
an app doesn’t work anymore
…
or just want to do some contribution but failed? Maybe you
don’t have time
don’t have interest
don’t know where to start
don’t know how to do that
…
?
If you have contributed to F-Droid, what painpoint you encountered and thought can be improved? E.g.
the doc is confused
the issues are not well triged
the workflow is difficult to follow
?
Please post your thoughts to help us improve the process and help new comers join us!
I was not used to this kind of forum software with wiki functionality. There is no overlay for wiki threads to have normal wiki layout. Is it possible to write wiki pages with non-english languages?
In #gentoo-wiki we had a discussion about rather seperated groups using IRC/wiki and forum.
I guess to contribute to patch android apps for F-Droid you need to:
write source code in the fitting programming language
have the/a whole android developer software suite and IDE
have an account at the external git hosting service or have no problems with the rules at that page
understand the whole android universe which differs from linux (e.g. storage access framework)
In opposite to that situation: if you use linux and have a script that doesn’t work: fix it local and run it. If the git hosting service is OK open an issue or create a merge request.
It’s not so difficult and for most apps you don’t need to patch it. You don’t even need to setup an Android development environment. Generally you’d better have some basic knowledgement about building apk to submit a new app. But you can also help
find broken apps and report to upstream or archive them.
find outdated apps and update them.
Maybe it’s helpful to have some “good first issue”?
After you write the patch, you can open an MR and test it with the CI. No need to setup a development environment locally.
It is not possible to do several tasks of them in F-Droid on its own. I have to login to the forum first. It would be nice, if F-Droid or a fork like F-Droid-bloated would provide a context menu on things like screenshots and I could report “outdated” or “missing”, open a prefilled thread in the forum, save it as a draft and edit the thread with a real keyboard at the computer.
To be painfully honest, I tried reporting an anti-feature that I though should have been handled differently, and the response I received seemed so hostile that I concluded that the F-Droid community is probably not an area where I would spend much time in the future. I think that a small number of active users with awkward social tendencies can adversely affect the entire atmosphere of a forum.
I don’t know where to start really. I sometimes look at the source code and log issues e.g. the lineageos music app just force quits on my phone. The dev didn’t reply but told someone else he only builds but can’t fix (if I remember right). I am a ghost now after deleting my account on GitHub.
Generally, if apps are not up-to-date, I assume the f droid devs are processing something and there’s a good reason.
Do you have a job list of things you need help with?
You can peruse no update check apps maybe some of them can be updated to autoupdate, eg. do they have tagged released? do they have a static versionCode and versionName?
then there are those that need an update that might be a bit more complicated to update in the first place
I think that a small number of active users with awkward social tendencies can adversely affect the entire atmosphere…
This is true, but it gets worse. Much much worse. There are an unknown number of very active people who are worse than snarky. They cannot be reasoned with. Some are classic trolls. They seek out written, anonymous or pseudo-anonymous written conflict because they enjoy it. Others, or other pseudo-identities of the former, one never knows, respond to disagreement in ways that approximate insane shouting, and they have no interest in resolving disagreements. They are right. You are wrong. If you do not concede, then you are part of a horrific conspiracy against them. They will not agree to disagree and move on. You must be silenced. These types are not unique to software development, but when it occurs in development conversations, it causes major adverse effects, and drives people away.
@linsui
Although I have time and interest, I am reducing involvement for the reasons above. Furthermore, I do not wish to interact with either GitLab or GitHub. Lastly, anonymous participation is difficult.
A karmic money contribution to F-Droid is planned in the spring after winter bills have been paid off.
I personally don’t know much about checking metadata for issues listed on this page. I would be willing to try but I am quite a novice. I can compile apps on android studio but only because you click a few commands.
The website link on gitlab is good but is not one I have come across before. Perhaps you could pin a link on the forum with invites to check. Would that encourage involvement?
I think you could get people to collaborate checking source code for updates and then f-droid could be told when to compile up-to-date versions. I think you would need a system, perhaps a shared spreadsheet, so people could contribute.
