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authorDavid Thompson <dthompson2@worcester.edu>2022-02-05 17:41:36 -0500
committerDavid Thompson <dthompson2@worcester.edu>2022-02-05 17:41:47 -0500
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+title: My First Real FOSS Contribution
+date: 2013-06-15 18:00
+tags: foss, mediagoblin, python, federated, decentralized, wsu
+summary: I added a small feature!
+---
+
+I spend a lot of my free time writing code. I usually work on my own
+personal projects that never really go anywhere. So, I decided to take
+a detour from my normal hacking routine and contribute to an existing
+free software project. My contribution was accepted awhile ago now,
+but I wasn’t blogging then so I’m rambling about it now.
+
+It’s wise to find a project with a low barrier of entry. An active IRC
+channel and/or mailing list with people willing to help newcomers is
+ideal. I remembered hearing about
+[GNU MediaGoblin](http://mediagoblin.org) at LibrePlanet 2012, so I
+decided to check things out. MediaGoblin is a media sharing web
+application written in Python. Their bug tracker marks tickets that
+require little work and don’t require a deep understanding of
+MediaGoblin as bitesized’.
+
+I chose to work on
+[this ticket](http://issues.mediagoblin.org/ticket/453) because it
+didn’t require any complicated database migrations or knowledge of the
+media processing code. I added a new configuration option,
+`allow_comments`, and a small amount of code to enforce the setting.
+
+Eventually, the ticket got reviewed and
+[Christopher Webber](http://dustycloud.org) (MediaGoblin’s friendly
+project leader) merged it: “Heya. Great branch, this works
+perfectly. Merged!”
+
+It was a very small change, but I was happy to _finally_ have some
+actual code of mine in a real free software project. I have a strong
+passion for free software and the GNU philosophy, so it’s really great
+to participate in the community. My job as a professional software
+developer eats up a lot of my time these days, but I hope to find the
+time to continue hacking and contributing.