Category Archives: Set-up Task #3

LibreFoodPantry

As I’ve been engaged with the internet for most of my life, I’m not entirely surprised, but I’m little unsettled by the Code of Conduct/Our Standards of the site. I didn’t realize with such a helpful type of engagement that standards such as these are as important as they seem to be. I suppose I wish this this type of medium was not as aggressive, as it would encourage a better attitude towards the people involved, but I’m familiar with the type of rhetoric people use on the web, and I am disappointed as it is needed to specify a certain type of behavior. I hope it is a failsafe rather than a direct shutdown of awful things that people say, but I understand the logic in case some awful people feel the need to post on the thread.

From the blog CS@worcester – Dummies that Code by howbrash and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Libre Food Pantry:Mission

The mission statement by Libre food pantry is very similar to my personal life goals. I as well hope to use my computer science knowledge and skills I have obtained towards the betterment of not just humans, but also human society, our standard of living, environment, and planet earth in general.

There is also a false belief among the common masses that people in computer science just have to write their part of code and move on. Therefore, they do not work well with other people or just don’t have to work with other people. Mission statement of Libre food pantry states right from the start that they are a “vibrant, welcoming community of clients, users, and developers” working together as an unit and team to achieve their goals.

From the blog CS@worcester – Towards Tech by murtazan and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Set Up Task 3: LibreFoodPantry

After reading several sections on the LibreFoodPantry website, I found the Code of Conduct to be rather useful. It provides a very clear picture of what is expected and how things are handled in a simple, straightforward way. The page explains in detail what the goal is, what the community standards are, where they apply, how they are enforced, and how the violations are handled. I think it’s very important to understand and be familiar with the culture, values, and standards of the community before being a contributing member. I will try to visit this section every once in awhile to remind myself of what values and practices I should uphold when working on this project.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Fadi Akram by Fadi Akram and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

LibreFoodPantry

When reading through the LibreFoodPantry main page looking at the values, specifically the FOSSims, I saw something that intrigued which was Linus’s law and the saying “given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow”. This phrase indicates that you should not shy away from help when encountering bugs so that they can be fixed easier and quicker and to not end up like those who just bang their head on the wall for hours on end stuck. I chose this since I can relate to have been typically working on fixing bugs myself and spend hours stuck instead of seeking help in certain situations. This is useful to think about and to hopefully convince other people to seek help.

From the blog CS@Worcester – kbcoding by kennybui986 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

LibreFoodPantry

Something from the LibreFoodPantry’s website that I found interesting was the mission that is listed. This page states that LibreFoodPantry’s mission is to “expand a community of students and faculty across multiple institutions who believe software can be used to help society.” I really like that this mission is centered around bettering our community. I think a lot of modern software projects are focused on comercialization and proffit, and I don’t like that. A software can be a very powerful tool for any cause; I believe that softwares should be designed to help people. I appreciate the oppurtinity to work on a project that has a real impact on the community.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Ciampa's Computer Science Blog by robiciampa and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

LibreFoodPantry

After reviewing and reading over the LibreFoodPantry’s main page I found a specific topic that settled a concern that I had about working on an open source project like this. In it’s values page it presents a list of ideals titled FOSSisms, where I found a particular one that I wasn’t expecting. This FOSSism covers how a student like I should handle working on the project and worrying about making mistakes or asking permission to try working with anything. I know that this semester I’ll have tasks already set aside that I need to work on but actually doing it and making a mistake that could break a part of the software itself was overly present on my mind. This FOSSism reassured me that I shouldn’t be too concerned about making that mistake and rather to ask for forgiveness instead of first asking for permission.

From the blog CS@Worcester – A Boolean Not An Or by Julion DeVincentis and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

LibreFoodPantry

One thing that I noticed when reading over the LibreFoodPantry code of conduct was how seriously online harassment is taken. I liked how the pantry is a place where people can feel safe to contribute to the project without fear of harassment. The enforcement policy seems extremely fair with many chances for corrective action to be taken.

The pantry enforces their code of conduct across multiple websites and does not tolerate harassment on any platform, including the LibreFoodPantry discord server. I especially like this since there are many organizations who only care about their own platform and do not monitor off-site harassment. This makes LibreFoodPantry a more welcoming environment for all developers and users.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Ryan Blog by rtrembley and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

LibreFoodPantry

The idea of working with an open source project has always scared me a lot. The way we have been doing projects since freshman year – trusting the professor as our main if not only guide and him being confidential with our bugs, errors and insecurities has been a great comfort and way for me to grow. However, an open source project is completely different and I didn’t know how to get started with it. When reading about the 16 FOSSisms as values of the LibreFoodPantry, I learned so much about the benefits they bring to us as student learners, understood how valuable it is to serve the community with our knowledge and embrace the process of learning instead of being scared of not doing enough or doing things wrong. These values will allow us to do and be our best in this amazing project.

16 maxims from free and open source culture for education | Opensource.com

LibreFoodPantry | LibreFoodPantry

From the blog CS@Worcester – Software Intellect by rkitenge91 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

LibreFoodPantry

The section that I choose to focus on is the Code of Conduct. While reading through each section from the LibreFoodPantry website, what stook out to me which sometimes is not clear on most apps, is the Guidelines section. The apps policies, if violated one of the community standards, will be temporarily ban the user allowing them to correct their actions. If the user continues to violate the community standards they will then be permanently banned. What I found interesting or rather curious about was whether the app notifies the user of the violation they made? And if so, how many violations are there before permanently banned? I think adding that additional information leaves little wiggle room for the user to claim they were not notified.

From the blog CS@Worcester – The Dive by gonzalezwsu22 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Familiarizing Myself With LibreFoodPantry

After visiting the website, LibreFoodPantry.org, I was really impressed by how clean the webpage looked. It really gives a brief idea on what this project is all about. On the main page it shows items such as the mission, values, status, and a few other things about the project. One thing that stood out to me was the User Story Map. I did not expect to see a layout of things that may be incorporated into the project. Seeing this as a student who will be working on this project allows me to better understand what I may be working on. The User Story Map shows features that may be added to the project based on interviews with clients. However, the story map doesn’t guarantee that everything on it will be incorporated, its more to help select what features to have and implement.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Michael's Developer Blog by michaelchaau and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.