We just added a 'newbie-friendly' label to the DEV Community repo but we're concerned that this might actually promote negative feelings if the dev who attempts it can't figure out how to implement.
The goal is, of course, to identify issues that might be 'easier' but we don't want anyone to feel discouraged if they can't do it! Writing software is complicated and nothing is ever as simple as they seem.
Top comments (10)
I think a good thing to do for "good first issue" would be to comment where in the codebase to look to find the code that could fix but mention that you can't work on it right now and would love for someone new to pick it up.
I don't always get stuck on the "how" of fixing a new issue but I do get stuck up on "where".
I agree, but are the "good first issue" labeled stuff good for people newer to the project or newer to coding or the technology involved?
I feel like some things are good first issues for folks with less project context, but might not be good for newer developers.
contributing to open source is great, but are people who are new to programming as a whole really the target audience of "good first issue"? I've just never seen it spun that way.
Why not add an additional tag "good for new developers" as well? That way both first-time devs and new devs can take it.
I really appreciate this addition. As I'm searching around trying to find projects to contribute to, I'm really struggling. I know a fair bit of html and css and am learning javascript. But, I'm finding that my skills are not up to "good first issue" level. So, I'm unfortunately spending tons of time searching through issues trying to find things I can actually do.
As for the term "newbie-friendly" and whether or not it promotes negative feelings. As a newbie coder I am very used to not being able to figure things out, so getting stumped with dev.to would not be anything new for me 🤪
As a beginner, I was comfortable with the issues that had a concise title. The titles that mentioned the specific technical information instead of the abstract, context-based info. Eg. " Create a new ability for xyz"❌
"Create a new interface as an ability for xyz" ✔️
When I see something familiar, there are more chances that I'll explore it, and I won't mind if there is some learning curve after I understood at least 70% of the issue. :)
I think part of labeling something as a good first issue should include saying what types of developer it's a good first issue for (e.g. if it's for CSS devs, Ruby devs, people who really want to do documentation, etc.). I think in general, though, issues for new contributors should be really small in scope (like, on the level of one- or two-line fixes) and well-documented, since that makes them an easier launching pad for people to start working on a project.
On my Phabricator instance, I created two tags:
#help-wantedand#low-hanging-fruit. The latter is used for marking relatively newbie-friendly tasks.Would calling an issue "newbie-friendly" potentially also cause people a little more experienced to leave the issue alone? Not because they feel it is below them but as an entry level issue specifically for newbies?
On that note "entry-level" could work as a label.
Stream of conscience ideas: