Updating the Contributor Stories on mozilla.org

Mozillians
#1

I was roaming around mozilla.org when I happened to come across the contributor stories. When I brought this up in the mozillians group on Telegram, I came to know that this was a good initiative by the CBT under Larissa but then got obsolete and un-updated after the CBT got disbanded and the team was re-assigned elsewhere.

The initiative was a good one to bring out the cool stories of the mozillians all over the world. It would be good if someone (preferably the participation team, because they’re the best team that is supposed to handle this kind of stuff) to take this initiative over and continue telling the stories of the many great mozillians all over the world. We’ve got a lot of stories of so many of our many cool volunteers. But they aren’t recognized.

As I see it, this can be implemented in 2 ways :

  1. We have monthly recognitions at different levels (contributor, reps, FSA, etc) within mozilla, we could use these people’s stories to update the stories on a monthly basis.

  2. We could identify active volunteers who haven’t been recognized in any of the above mentioned categories and tell their stories. This would give more people a chance to tell their stories. But identifying such people would be difficult, so hence, we could update the stories on a quarterly basis if this option is chosen.

But either way, the point is that the initiative was a good one, and we shouldn’t just let it sit there obsolete.

If you have a better idea, go ahead and join in the discussion. Let’s have an open discussion. I’ve filed a bug and sent an email to the CBT mailing list on the same topic as well. Hope you engage somewhere and shed your opinions on this. Looking forward to hearing from you with your opinion on the matter.

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#2

In general I agree with your points. Having recognition is important, but we can’t recognize everyone all the time. “Reps of the month”, “FSA of the month”, etc. would be a good start. I think all of these need a description anyway, so there wouldn’t be much additional effort needed except of updating the view.

Further, there is a “Contribution story” link on mozillians.org, maybe we could something with that?

But either way, the point is that the initiative was a good one, and we shouldn’t just let it sit there obsolete.

I might be quite biased here, but I don’t think “obsolete” is the right word here.

#3

I haven’t come across that. Can you point me in that direction? Well, if there was something like that, that would be a good place to start at least.

I didn’t mean to be too harsh / rude. But I couldn’t find another word to describe the state of that part of mozilla.org. But yes, it needs to be actively maintained.

#4

On mozillians.org you can link to a “Contribution story”. This can be any link you want.

Example: my profile https://mozillians.org/en-US/u/mkohler/

#5

But that is only a link right? Don’t you think a better way to approach
that would be to provide a space to include our story into mozillians.org.
Like our Bio? Or better still, just rename the bio to contribution story.
We could use the title as a short bio. That’d be a good modification too. I
feel the contribution story is more important than the bio.

~ shine

#6

Yes, currently it’s only a link. That’s why I said that we maybe could do something with that.

Having a separate, non-link reference would be better in my opinion too, I’d fully back you there. Not sure if Contribution Story is more important than Bio though. Shouldn’t the Bio on mozillians.org say anyway what awesome things you have done for Mozilla anyway instead of some generic “In my job I work as …” sentences?

For example the following criteria (just some suggestions of questions one might ask themselves):
Bio: Projects you work on, the project you spend most time with, your favorite product, … (so everybody coming to your profile knows what you’re working on)
Contribution story: how did you get involved with Mozilla? why exactly did you choose to contribute? what was your first contribution? why do you contribute? why should others contribute?

I think there should be a second field in the “Bio” section for the contribution story. Maybe we should file a bug for that. Would you like to do that since it was your idea? If not, I’m happy to do it.

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#7

Totally agree with you there. But in the end, its up to the user what he wants to put in the Bio and Contribution Story fields.

We’re deviating away from the main point of discussion too. My point was to get Contributor Stories in the section on mozilla.org. Well, if we can get the contribution stories on mozillians.org, fetching them would be easier via API. But the Contribution Story on mozillians.org would be a good place to start.

You mean making the “Contribution Story” field editable like the “Bio” field rather than a web link right?

Sure. Done. Check it out here : bug 1151752

#8

https://discourse.mozilla-community.org/t/challange-share-the-story-of-an-amazing-mozillian/1274

#9

Lets talk, I would love to collaborate with you on a variation of your idea that brings stories, and recognition to amazing community.

https://discourse.mozilla-community.org/t/thinking-about-recognition/1901/2?u=emma_irwin

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#10

Sure. We can collaborate @emma_irwin. It would be great to help you out. I can be reached at [:shine] on IRC or @shine__nelson on Twitter.

I had seen your post on #mozlove, that could be a good place to start but it didn’t receive the traction it was expected to receive. Maybe we can figure out a way to get that lost traction.

#11

For others following along - or interested in raising the profile of contributor stories, shine and I are brainstorming goals on this etherpad:

https://remo.etherpad.mozilla.org/contributor-stories

#12

@shine I want to introduce you to @satdav , if you don’t already know him. He is charging recognition of contributors who also happen to have disabilities. Seems like a great addition to the story telling of amazing contributors this project is working to create.

#13

Thank you @emma_irwin for the connect. I know @satdav from #contributors on IRC and the Facebook Group Mozilla Contributors. He and @aprilmorone have been attempting to do something for contributors with disabilities.

It would be a great idea to share the stories of our differently-abled contributors. Let’s get someone to write stories about these people under #mozlove. @aprilmorone would be the best person to do this.

#14

I agree cus I have writing experience as a published writer. So, direct
your storues to me and I will wtite them all up, not just my own story
about contributing with different abilities.
April Morone

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#15

I meant for you to write a #mozlove story about a disabled contributor to start off the stories about the disabled contributors. :smile:

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#16

Oh… Lol. My mistake. okay. I will do that either tonight or tomorrow
night. :slight_smile:

#17

Because I am disabled, I will write a story about what it is like to
contribute with disabilities for me. I know it can vary from contributor
to contributor, however.

I have partial blindness, hearing loss, have neuromuscular problems that
can be very debilitating much of the time, and have bad Gastroparesis
caused from neuromuscular problem, which often renders me with, as my
doctor said it, “you are weak and are passing out, walking into things more
often because of too little calories caused by your Gastroparesis.” I have
to work around these disabilities with different aids or do things to make
contributing easier for me, such as being only a lot closer to the screen
to see, or use a magnification programme, use hearing aids, take breaks
more than most people because of weakness and pain, and work on things as
my health will allow, not as I would like to do them (I prefer a set
schedule, but my body does not always comply to that. So, I have to do so
as I can do so. But, it has been wonderful to see that Mozilla works with
me (most Mozillians have worked with me, well), on this issue to allow me
to work on things as I can do so. However, due to the digestion problems
being too much and weakening me too much, I have had to step away from
being a more full volunteer admin for ‘Mozilla Contributors’ group on
Facebook, Yammer, Google+, IRC, and elsewhere. But, I did try getting a
mailing list implemented for disabled (that hasn’t yet happened), as well
as for non-disabled contributors (that HAS happened, which I help to manage
as my health and memory allow me to do). And, I still manage, sometimes,
the IRC channel #contributors. I try to also teach Mozillians Web
Development (how to set up dev environment and back-end programming). But
because my body would no longer allow for a full schedule, I set up,
instead, a Facebook Mozilla group for Web and Software devs (developers) to
congregate and discuss about any and all things Web Development related, as
well as to learn Web and Software development. And I can post as my health
will allow, ad others can post questions, responses, new posts, etc., in
this group as they can without worry of when everyone can get together for
a class(es) via a strict schedule. They can learn on their own time, that
way, plus, I can teach on my own time, that way. Disabilities are
disabling. But, there can be ways around disabilities, sometimes, to
contribute. And I want to be an example for other contributors who have
disabilties of that contributing with disabilities isn’t impossible and
that contributing can still be done in Mozilla via other ways/workarounds
plus with some accommodations.
April Morone

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#18

Great post @aprilmorone. Do you have a blog where you could post your
story, tag it #mozlove and then share the link here? I guess that would be
the best course of action to do.

@emmairwin, how do you think we should get the posts done? Should the users
post to their personal blog or write about it on Discourse. I guess, you
had made another post
on that earlier. Should we take it up from there or just get people to
write blog posts and share links either on this thread?

~ shine

#19

Shine,
Ty. Glad it is. No, I don’t yet have a blog post to which I can link,
herein. However, I can create one and then link it, herein. I will do so
this weekend at some point. :slight_smile:
April Morone

#20

I added some thoughts to the etherpad. I am not sure what the status of this project is, but for sure I would like to see some fresh contributor stories on that page. QA has also been doing monthly contributor spotlights that would could use on that page. It would also be great if we could possibly adjust the design to be circular,in order to be able to fit a set of individuals around a globe.

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