Announcing: BugsDoneQuick, July 6-13
Hello, world! Hello friends!
After a successful poll on the Fediverse, I realized I really really want to do this:
I'm going to livestream for a week, July 6-13, while I speedrun fixing bugs and quality-of-life issues on a variety of open-source projects (the more the merrier!).
This event, is inspired by GamesDoneQuick, a huge speedrunning competition and convention which collects money towards charities. Inspired by that massive event, I'm going to try to use my corner of the internet to solve as many bugs as quickly as I can, for charity.
And that's where you come in
Before the whole thing starts, I'm going to need a list of bugs to fix. I think I can solve up to ~20 bugs over the whole week, but having a few extra issues won't hurt.
They don't have to be major bugs; in fact I prefer solving niche, small bugs that I know a real person has encountered.
So... if you would kindly share a bug or issue that you've been having with an open-source/free software project, please do so! Right here:
Schedule
Here's a quick list of dates to get you started:
- β June 23 (VOD) Practice stream, fixing a bug: in Dolphin (KDE) for practice.
- β July 1 (VOD) Practice stream, fixing a few issues in Forgejo for practice. There were some recording issues, but you can check the surviving parts of the VOD out.
- β July 6 (VOD): Start of BugsDoneQuick event, shorter Sunday stream. Fixed some issues in Element, the Matrix chat application!
- β July 7 (VOD): Monday's BugsDoneQuick stream. Worked on an issue and a feature for PeerTube, the federated video hosting application!
- β July 8 (VOD): Tuesday's BugsDoneQuick stream. Working on three separate issues in the Zarr Python library.
- β July 9 (VOD): Wednesday's BugsDoneQuick stream. Working on Gwenview, KDE's image viewer application.
- β July 10 (VOD): Thursday's BugsDoneQuick stream. Working on LibreOffice, the arguably best open-source office suite. (Longest stream to date, nearly 7 hours straight!)
- β July 11 (Upcoming / Live!): Friday's BugsDoneQuick stream. Starting around 08:00 UTC, and going for ~6 hours (energy permitting). Still choosing an open-source project for this day.
- π July 12: Saturday's BugsDoneQuick stream. Starting around 08:00 UTC. Still choosing an open-source project for this day.
- π July 13: End of BugsDoneQuick event, also a shorter Sunday stream. Starting around 10:30 UTC.
- ποΈ July 14: Very well deserved rest. π
- βοΈ July 15-August 15: Off-stream discussion with the maintainers for each of the projects and polishing up the submitted fixes until they are ultimately accepted or rejected. Writing retrospective posts.
Questions
What is open-source? Why only open-source projects?
Open-source software is software which is not encumbered by proprietary licenses that limit who is allowed to use it and why. A lot has been said about it already.
I'm passionate about open-source. Making things around open-source makes me happy. And, that's the primary reason why I'm limiting myself to open-source projects.
The other reason is that this is going to be a charity stream, and volunteering to fix neglected issues is one of the best charitable acts I can do.
What are some open-source projects I can submit issues for?
There are many programs which are open-sourceβand a lot of them are software you use and love.
Here are a few examples to get you started:
- Firefox, Chromium (not Chrome, but the two share a lot of code), Ladybug (the browser)(
- Thunderbird, KMail, GNOME Evolution
- LibreOffice/OpenOffice
- Linux kernel (also used in Android) - tho I likely won't be able to do any reasonable bugfix there.
- Peertube, Mastodon, Pleorama, Pixelfed - and generally the rest of the Fediverse software
- Syncthing, Signal, Lawnchair, Aves Libre - and many more Android apps
- P5.js, D3.js, Vue.js, React; Laravel, Yew (Rust), ... - and a whole lot more programming libraries
- Wordpress, Strapi, 11ty - and other content management system software.
- Zulip, Element, Mattermost, HexChat, Irssi. - and other chat applications
- MuseScore, Audacity/Tenacity, Ardour, Bosca Ceoli, ... - and a few other music-making/editing programs.
And many, many more. Look it up; most open-source apps would say that in their About page!
Can I submit an issue I'm personally going to benefit from?
YES! A thousand times yes!
I love solving bugs and issues with real users behind them. If a bug in an open-source application or library is giving you a headache, and you just wish someone would finally (finally) fix it, I would love to be that someone!
However... do note that I'm going to prioritize issues submitted by people who have stated they have contributed to the FOSS project they have a bug in. That field of the form works on the honor system, so, don't lie there; but even the smallest financial or time investment in the project would count.
How are you going to ensure the quality of the code you "speedrun"?
In two ways:
- As a professional programmer, I have a general idea of what it means for a bug fix to be well-polished. So, I'll be making sure that I get all the bug fixes to that level before I submit them and check the issue off as "done".
- I expect that for at least a month after the event, I'll be discussing each of the fixes with the maintainers of the various projects involved. That way, any mistakes will be caught and corrected off-stream.
Overall, having seen the gripes of FOSS maintainers with past events, such as with Hacktoberfest, I'm not looking into ways to create a bunch of pull/merge requests to prove a point; but instead, to work on a few good bugfixes and have fun while doing that. π
What charity is your stream going to benefit?
If you are coming from the GamesDoneQuick world, you might be familiar with the fundraisers they run.
Here, at BugsDoneQuick, we are running a different kind of fundraiser, however: if anyone enjoys the stream, they are welcome to donate to one of the projects we are solving the issues of. Or, to one of the projects I'm using while streaming, that would be great too!
Where are you going to stream?
I'll be streaming on PeerTube at @bojidar_bg@makertube.net! That way, the whole production process of these livestreams uses as much open-source software as possible - from the operating system (Linux, KDE), through the recording software (OBS), to the server hosting the stream (PeerTube), to the potential viewer running an open-source browser or application (Firefox, Chromium, etc.).
Will there be a green timer?
Yes!
Follow me?
If you want to be kept in the loop about BugsDoneQuick, please consider subscribing to this website's Atom feed, or following me on Mastodon.
Alternatively, you may join the #bugsdonequick:matrix.org room on Matrix to chat about the idea, both on- and off- stream.
Also, this page is going to be updated with the most up-to-date links as they become available, so you can bookmark it and add it to your calendar.
(Counting this as my 12th post of #100DaysToOffload)