Streamlining Account Signup Process
This question stems from a post on the CentOS mailing list -- a fellow
wanted to add a couple items to the EPEL Wishlist but wasn't sure how.
I suggested he get a Wiki account and add it himself (probably should
have just added it for him, but...). In any case, here's his rant:
http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2007-June/083203.html
I think I agree with him in spirit that getting a Wiki / FAS account
set up is a bit of a daunting process.
I pointed him here:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/WikiEditing#head-3d4b8815f923a8f137fb466901...
Which has links pointing to other lists of tasks to do -- it can get
rather spaghetti like, especially when you don't understand why you're
generating all these SSH keys and GPG keys, etc :)
My questions are as follows:
1. Is this the appropriate list to discuss this issue on?
2. Do you guys agree that the signup process is overly complex? Or
does the process partially serve to ensure that the candidate is
sufficiently motivated and persistent? :)
3. If so, can we discuss a way to simplify it?
Alternately...
4. Would maybe reorganizing the documentation for getting an account
be the most helpful in the short-term?
Also, maybe just a blurb on the EPEL wish list describing an easier way
to request package additions there would be helpful. Even if it's just
"join the mailing list and ask" or "ask on IRC". This is like a
question for epel-devel however.
I know one of your guys' overall goals has always been to get more
community involvement, so I figured this was a worthwhile question to
ask. I know I almost decided that it wasn't worth the effort to join
the FP after seeing all those steps for signup when I just wanted to
contribute one package initially (I'm happy I didn't bail btw)... I
imagine many others feel the same way.
Ray
PS: I know I haven't proposed any solutions. Still trying to wrap my
head around what those might be, but wanted to throw this out there.