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How you can help Tent
Tent is still very young and needs your help. Everyone has different skills and interests that can help.
If you create or find out about any cool Tent projects, let us know!
Everyone
Start using Tent
Like all social services, the more people who use Tent, the more useful it is to everyone. Either by self-hosting or using a hosting provider, get your Tent server set up and keep it up to date with the most recent software version. Like all new software, Tent has many bugs. Please report them here or email us. Remember, Tent is still in alpha, so it's not safe to use with information you would not want to be public and should not be considered reliable.
Help newcomers
Tent empowers users, but like other distributed systems (the web, email, BitTorrent, DNS) it can be hard for new users to understand. Help by creating "Getting Started" guides, tutorials, articles, and blog posts. Diagrams, animations, and videos can go a long way towards helping non-technical users understand how Tent works and why it matters.
Promote Tent
Tell people you know about Tent any way you can!
- Put a link to Tent.io on your website, advertise your Tent server on your business card, e-mail signature, and your HTTP headers.
- Give a talk about Tent at your local tech or organization meetup.
- Email the developers behind your favorite services and ask them to support Tent!
Translate Tent
Help translate the Tent.io website and Tent Docs into your native language. Either fork the docs on Github or e-mail us.
All languages are welcome, but our priorities are:
- Russian
- Arabic
- Chinese
- Japanese
- German
- French
- Spanish
Designers
Design Tent apps and hosts
The world needs well designed Tent services. Great apps start with great design and UIs. Most Tent apps are still developers' weekend projects and could use your help! Many apps and hosting providers also support "skins" or "themes" and would welcome your contributions.
Design Core Tent Apps
The Admin and Status apps need your help. They are open source projects created by the Tent Team and community. Since there aren't any designers on the Team (yet!) those applications are ripe for a redesign. Both apps are on Tent's github page where you can share your submissions.
Design Tent.io
Tent.io could use a facelift. Our wishlist includes: diagrams clearly explaining tent to non-technical newcomers, a short (30 second-1.5 minute) Intro to Tent video, and official Tent logo (that users and apps can display and we can put on logo merch). Keep in mind that you must sign over ownership of anything official you create for http://Tent.io. Fan art is great, but official logos and design need to be the exclusive property of the organization running Tent.io for legal reasons.
Developers
Develop Tent Apps
Tent enables new kinds of communication and sharing, developers can unlock that potential. Add Tent support to open and commercial apps or start from scratch. The protocol is still evolving, so stay in touch with the community as you develop.
Create Tent Libraries
Your favorite language or framework needs a Tent library. Our top priorities are:
- C
- C++
- C#/.NET
- Clojure
- Common Lisp
- Erlang
- Go
- Java
- Javascript
- Lua
- Objective-C
- Perl
- PHP
- Python
- Scala
Existing client libraries need regular maintenance to keep up with Tent as it evolves.
Write Tutorials
Developers coming to Tent need a place to start. Blog articles, tutorials, getting started guides, and code samples are still in short supply.
Contribute to the Tent Core
Tent has many open source elements that need your help and accepts pull requests. Applications include tentd, the reference server implementation, TentStatus, a Tent microblogging app, and TentAdmin, a server administration app. Most of these apps were developed to demonstrate basic functionality and shipped with a limited feature set. Additions, changes, and forks are welcome. The documentation accompanying these projects and the Tent protocol are also community curated. All can be found on the Tent github.