Too difficult for newcomers: Join gnome.element.io
This issue relates to item 2 of the Engagement team priorities for 2021-2022, "Improve the onboarding process".
My 17-year-old son writes his school leaving thesis (German) about Free and Open Source software. To get to know the GNOME project better he tried to follow the newcomer's path on the GNOME website – and failed miserably. Here's roughly his journey:
- Go to https://gnome.org, click on "Get Involved" (top navigation).
- In "Pick an area" try out "Coding", go through all apps.
- As a side-track, on gitlab.gnome.org, try to open a GitLab account – unsuccessful: Login not possible after registration (no email verification email received from GNOME's GitLab, maybe that's the problem?).
🤕 - Return to this page "Get Involved" page.
- In "Pick an area" try out "Engagement", press the button Join the Engagement Team.
🤔 - In the "Quick Start Guide" section try 1. Join gnome.element.io, press the "Chat With Us" button.
- Element suggests to create an account; clicking "Create an account" makes you open an account at "matrix.org"; go ahead configuring the account.
- Matrix.org instance doesn't seem like it's related to GNOME, hence return to Quick Start Guide.
- Try the "gnome.element.io" address, looks familiar, hence use the account from "matrix.org" to log in.
- Logging in fails, hence try to create an account. User interface says, "your email domain is not accepted" (or so).
💣
How are newcomers expected to join the conversation, be it on Matrix or on GitLab?
Edited by Peter Bittner