Papercuts events are Galaxy CoFests that address annoying, but easy to fix bugs ("paper cuts"). Papercuts CoFests run for 24 hours (following the sun) and are collaborative events, dedicated to

• Making the Galaxy experience be a pleasure and be productive by removing and reducing irritants.
• Growing the Galaxy contributor community by holding regular events.
• Identify easy but informative things to fix.
• Work together and enjoy the community.
• Dedicate time together for bug-fixing.
• Make reducing paper cuts fun.

How to get involved with Papercuts CoFests?

Papercuts CoFests are held every three months (see below), and it's easy to get involved in the very next one.

• Before

  • Each Papercuts event page has links to issues. in different parts of Galaxy, that have been flagged by experienced community members as being "fixable during a Papercuts."
  • Figure out which of these projects interest you the most.
  • Do some (even a little bit is useful) on that project.
  • Check the event page for more information on that particular event. Depending on what issues we're hoping to tackle, there may be some scheduled Zoom calls or collaboration materials.

• During

  • Join the discussion on Gitter.
  • People on Gitter will provide guidance and resources, and help connect you to folks who specialize in the area you are interested in.
  • Ask for help! Collaborate! Work together!
  • Join the GTN CoFest Calls! (And any other Zoom calls that we may have for the event.)

• After

  • Stay involved. Galaxy has lots of ways to get involved. Leverage your newly acquired knowledge to ask for help, and to help others.
  • Get your fixes integrated! You may or may not get in a fix integrated during the official Papercuts day. If you don't, then stick with it until you have the final polish on it, so it can be merged.
  • Join us again for the next Papercuts.

Guide for WGs: Hosting a Papercuts event

If your working group is the host for the next papercuts event, here is what we need from you for the event to be successful:

• Find 5-10 small to medium issues that you want to see worked on. Triage them a bit to make sure a contributor has any pertinent information they may need to be successful.
• Find 1 or 2 bigger topics that you want a lot of feedback or collaboration on, if applicable.
• Decide if you want to have video calls or not. If you do, we can pre-schedule them ahead of time.
• Be available. Talk about who's going to take point on certain issues or time zones.
• Make the event yours. We welcome help with design decisions for the advertisements, formatting on the event page, etc.
• Have fun!