Getting started · New members
Your first month
What actually happens after you are accepted, week by week, and what nobody expects of you.
Nobody expects you to contribute anything in your first weeks. The only thing that helps is turning up.
Week one — turn up and listen
Come to the weekly meeting. Say your name and one sentence about what you are interested in. Then listen. You will not follow all of it, and that is the normal experience for everyone in their first week, including people who have been programming for years.
Week two — find a study group
Join one that exists, or say what you want to learn and see if two other people want to learn it too. This is the fastest way to stop being a stranger, because a study group is four people who now know your name.
Week three — put your hand up for something
Submit an idea, or join a project that needs a pair of hands. You do not need to be the person who writes the hardest part. Projects need testing, documentation, design, and someone who keeps track of what was decided.
Week four — say something at the meeting
Take two minutes in the member updates to say what you learned, what you are building, or what you are stuck on. Being stuck is a perfectly good update and usually the most useful one.
What nobody expects of you
- To attend everything. Come to what is useful to you.
- To already be good. Most people here are learning.
- To have a project. Plenty of members join other people's.
- To write code at all, if that is not your thing.
- To know the answer when someone asks you a question.
If you get stuck or go quiet
People disappear from communities quietly and usually for ordinary reasons: exams, work, losing the thread. If that happens, come back whenever. If something about the community is what put you off, tell the leadership team.