Re: [H-source-users] Introduction

[Bone Baboon]

Damien Zammit writes:

> On 18/7/21 1:04 pm, Bone Baboon wrote:
>> What do people think about h-node being converted to a Git repository?
>
> I think that is a great idea!
>
> One thing I'm not sure about is how to maintain the different
> translations.  I suppose they could go in different sub folders with
> the same file names so that there can be buttons that link to the
> different translations on the static site. 

Two examples using a similar approach are the h-node website and the
Guix's online manual.  Both give a user the choice of language.  They
both have separate directories for each language.

<https://h-node.org/>

<https://guix.gnu.org/en/manual/>

> That could work, and solves the problem of having to maintain a
> database with sensitive password hashes per user.

Yes it eliminates the need to store user passwords.

> Although it raises the barrier for contribution,

The use of Git could be a barrier to people that want to contribute to
h-node and are not familiar with Git.  To help mitigate this a detailed
tutorial teaching how to make h-node contributions using Git could be
provided.

h-node already has the significant (necessary) barrier to contributing
of requiring a FSDG operating system
<https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html> or Debian
installed. <https://h-node.org/>  Currently few computers come with 
either of these preinstalled at purchase.  So a contributor to h-node
has probably installed a FSDG operating system or Debian on their
computer.  Being able to install an operating system is probably a good
indicator that they are able to follow documentation and would hopefully
be okay following along with a Git tutorial for h-node.

> and also means someone has to review all changes and merge them into
> the main site every time. 

Yes it does introduce the requirement for the review and merging of
submission.  While this introduces additional work to be done it also
has some advantages.

One of the advantages is that it adds a quality control check on
submissions before they are include in h-node.

A second advantage is that it provides a feedback mechanism where
someone can learn how to make better submissions based on the feedback
provided by a reviewer.

> (As well as have a deployment mechanism that pulls the latest changes and 
> recompiles the site).

Git provides a mechanism for easily automating this kind of repetitive
task.  That mechanism is Git's post-receive hook.

<https://git-scm.com/docs/githooks>

> Who would be the reviewer/merger?

That is a good question.

Are there currently people reviewing submissions to h-node?

I think some groups that may have individuals that would be interested
in helping with the review of h-node submission could be:

* FSF staff
* This mailing list
* Mailing list and IRC channels for FSDG operating systems
* #fsf@libera
* #gnu@libera

The Free Software Directory IRC meetings
<https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Main_Page> (see the Friday IRC Meeting
section) are an interesting way for the Free Software Directory to
recruit contributors.  This same approach could be tested for h-node and
if it attracted contributors then maybe some of them would eventually
become reviewers for submissions.