Marketing/Month of LibreOffice
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A month-long marketing campaign, as initially discussed in redmine#1868. This was first run in May 2016 - see this blog post for the results. It can be repeated again at any time.
Goal is to generate interest in contributing to the LibreOffice project and credit volunteers for their work.
Barnstars
Over the course of the month, LibreOffice community members can award people (especially project outsiders who aren't so well known) with a barnstar for doing a good deed or performing good work. LibreOffice community members will need a wiki account and then can award barnstars on Barnstars/2016-05. For example (image public domain, originally from Wikipedia):
Joe Bloggs awards a Bronze Barnstar to Sally Smith for testing the new toolbar buttons in Writer. |
Joe Bloggs awards a Silver Barnstar to Sally Smith for testing the new toolbar buttons in Writer. |
Joe Bloggs awards a Gold Barnstar to Sally Smith for testing the new toolbar buttons in Writer. |
Badges
We will award the following badges:
(Had a code contribution merged)
(Confirmed a bug report independently)
(Translated/localised a string for the LibreOffice UI)
(Helpfully answered a question on ask.libreoffice.org)
(Contributed to LibreOffice documentation)
(Told the world about #libreoffice on Twitter)
Data sources
- Code contributions: use https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/#/q/status:merged+-ownerin:committer as a source -- daily number isn't too big so this can be processed manually
- QA / bug reports: nothing can be automated according to Beluga. But Bjoern Michaelsen provides this Bugzilla link which shows confirmations in the last 30 days. Again, not too many in a day so can be processed manually
- Translation work: see https://translations.documentfoundation.org/#reports (may require extra privileges) - in "Report period" choose "This month", then click Generate to see all contributors
- Providing useful answers to questions: https://ask.libreoffice.org/en/questions/scope:all/sort:activity-desc/page:1/ - and also for 2018 onwards, check https://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/
- Documentation changes: https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/gitweb?p=help.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/master is one source but not very active; also see Special:RecentChanges (search for Documentation) and https://community.documentfoundation.org/c/documentation/12
- Mentions on social media: https://twitter.com/hashtag/libreoffice?f=live (Twitter) and https://fosstodon.org/web/tags/libreoffice (Mastodon) - for people spreading the word about LibreOffice, or helping other users
- LibreOffice Community: Also check https://community.documentfoundation.org for activity
Automatic wiki editing
Marketing/Month_of_LibreOffice/Update_script has been written in PHP, which uses Chris G's Botclasses to read text files containing names of contributors, and edits the Badges/2016-05 page accordingly.
Schedule
Week before: Preview post about Month of LibreOffice on blog and social media.
Mon 2nd May: Campaign starts - blog post, and use social media, mailing lists (announce@?) and Reddit / Hacker News etc. to raise attention. Highlight the first badges/barnstars awarded. Maintain interest throughout the month with stats updates, regularly on:
- Mailing lists
And less often (eg once a week) on:
- TDF Blog
Tue 31st May: Campaign ends - blog about results and highscores. Links to pages with barnstars and badges (with their names next to them). Create high-score lists, with social media sharing buttons so that contributors proudly show their badges on Twitter etc. Try to get campaign results on Slashdot, Hacker News etc.
Blog post draft for 25th / 26th April
Coming up: the Month of LibreOffice
There's so much fantastic work going on in LibreOffice at the moment, in all areas of the project: development, translations, bug fixing, documentation, user support and much more. The community is doing stellar work to make the software better, faster, more reliable, easier to use, and available for everyone.
In May, we want to really highlight the efforts of everyone involved, so we're going to run a special campaign: the Month of LibreOffice. This campaign will give contributors the opportunity to thank members of the community for their work, by awarding them barnstars like so:
Joe Bloggs awards a Silver Barnstar to Sally Smith for testing the new toolbar buttons in Writer. |
But that's just the start of it! We'll also be awarding badges for contributions to LibreOffice. Every time someone has their code merged, confirms a bug, submits documentation updates, helps users on Ask LibreOffice or just spreads the good word on Twitter, we'll award them a badge:
There are multiple badges to collect, and at the end of the campaign we'll see who got the most. Maybe you can get them all!
The Month of LibreOffice will kick off on Monday 2nd May, so stay tuned to this blog for the full announcement and information on how to get involved...
Blog post draft for start of campaign
Every contribution to the LibreOffice project - whether it's a large code patch or just a small bug report - makes the software better for everyone. Over the last few years we've had hundreds of contributions from all around the world, and in May 2016 we really want to highlight all the effort goes in to LibreOffice. So we're running a new campaign to credit everyone who contributes to the project!
Barnstars
If you're involved with LibreOffice development, design, documentation, translation or QA, and want to show your appreciation for someone's efforts, award them a barnstar on our special Barnstars/2016-05 page. This is a bronze, silver or gold icon that shows your thanks for that person's help or contribution, like so:
Joe Bloggs awards a Silver Barnstar to Sally Smith for testing the new toolbar buttons in Writer. |
All you have to do is visit our Barnstars/2016-05 wiki page, log in, and copy and paste the template. Fill in the details for the person you want to credit and show your appreciation!
Badges
Meanwhile, LibreOffice contributors can earn badges throughout May by doing various jobs. These include: confirming a bug report, committing code to the LibreOffice source tree, translating a string in the interface, and more:
Every time a contributor completes one of these jobs, we will add them to the Badges/2016-05 page. Everyone who earns a badge can proudly show it off on their blog or social media accounts! At the end of the campaign we'll make a high-score list for the contributors who earned the most badges.
How do I get a badge?
There are six badges covering many aspects of LibreOffice:
- Help to confirm bugs: go to our Bugzilla page and look for new bugs. If you can recreate one, add a comment like "CONFIRMED on Windows 10 and LibreOffice 5.1.2". Make sure you're using the latest version of LibreOffice!
- Contribute code: The codebase is big, but there are lots of places to get involved with small jobs. See our Developers page on the website and this page on the wiki to get started. Once you've submitted a patch, if it gets merged we'll award you a badge!
- Translate the interface: LibreOffice is available in a wide range of languages, but its interface translations need to be kept up-to-date. Or maybe you want to translate the suite to a whole new language? Get involved here.
- Write documentation: Another way to earn a badge is to help the LibreOffice documentation team. Whether you want to update the online help or add chapters to the handbooks, here's where to start.
- Answer questions from users: Over on ask.libreoffice.org there are many users looking for help with LibreOffice. We're keeping an eye on that site so if you give someone useful advice, you'll get a shiny badge to add to your collection.
- Spread the word: Tell everyone about LibreOffice on Twitter! Just way why you love it or what you're using it for, add the #libreoffice hashtag, and we'll award you with a badge.
Can you get all six badges? Good luck!
So let's go!
The campaigns run until the end of the month, so you have around four weeks to award barnstars (or earn them!) and pick up badges for your contributions. We'll be posting regular updates on our Twitter account, and of course keep an eye on the wiki pages to see the progress. It's going to be awesome!
Metrics
Keep track of the number of badges awarded per day. If the campaign works, this should grow over the month as word spreads and more developers "compete" to get badges.
In the longer term, compare June's website stats, Git activity etc. with April and earlier months to see how the May campaign had an effect (eg if it brought in new contributors who are staying involved).