I would like to try making a few minor changes to the CSS in either kbin or lemmy both of which I’ve been trying out. I favor a more dense interface and think styles could help visually separate different kinds of content. Maybe to reorganize some stuff if I got more ambitious.
I have some experience with web stuff, css. I can get around in git. But I am not a sysadmin or a programmer. And I have never worked on such a large comprehensive project.
Here are the repos I found:
codeberg Kbin/kbin-core
- seems to have no contib guidelines
- issues: 50 open, 4 closed
github LemmyNet/lemmy
-
contrib - same link for both repos but doesn’t really give much useful info
-
Issues: 184 open, 1,594 closed
github LemmyNet/lemmy-ui
- issues: 197 open, 507 closed
Do I need to run the whole server with back end to fiddle with the CSS? Or can I use the developer tools in my browser to produce an alternative stylesheet?
Maybe it is just way above my skill set to make full PRs in something so complex. Should I post mock ups of how I’d like it to look as an issue?
Or just wait for someone who knows better how to get it done to come along?
Meanwhile the UI in this post has a relevant mind on its own due to the load issues.
It just collapsed the main content area and expanded the sidebar after a long load time, which couldn’t fetch any of the images.
Edit: Also, what is the best place to make suggestions instead of reporting actual issues?
Well the specific problem you have here, i would say that is an issue. They might not focus on it if it is non reproduceable or fixed by refreshing. But that is for the devs to triage.
Some floss projects have a dicussion forum to make general suggestions or as questions. I imagibe there is such a thing here on lemmy if not on github.
But ui suggestions can be issues. For example some reddit ppl (like me) have been confused because the add comment box is at the bottom of the thread instead of the top. I think that would be a fair issue to open. Or if you think the top menu bar should be arranged differently. Or if the colors are unreadable, etc.
Projects that only want certain kinds of issues reported, they should create a document explaining this.
An awful lot of discussion about what to replace reddit with has mentioned “the UI” as a major barrier to this so I hope the devs would be receptive to feedback. But they dont have to and shouldnt take every singke suggestion because it would create a “too many cooks in the kitchen” situation.