Do you love Linux and open source? Do you have ideas to share, enjoy writing, or want to help run a blog with over 60k visits every week? Then you’re at the right place! Fedora Magazine is looking for contributors. This article walks you through various options of contributing and guides you through the process of becoming a contributor.

There are three main areas of contribution:

Proposing ideas Writing articles Keeping it all running

Proposing ideas

Everything starts with an idea. We discuss ideas and how to turn them into articles that are interesting and useful to the Magazine’s audience.

Everyone is welcome to submit an idea. It can be a very specific article proposal, or really just an idea. The Editorial Board discusses each proposal and decides about the next step.

Many ideas are turned into a so-called Article Spec, which is a specific description of an article to get written for the Magazine. It usually describes the desired structure and other aspects of the article.

By submitting a proposal you’re not automatically committing to write it. It’s a separate step by design. But, of course, you’re very welcome to do both!

Submit an idea by opening an issue in our issue tracker. To do that, you’ll need a FAS (Fedora Account System) account.

See the docs on proposing articles for more info.

Writing articles

If you enjoy writing, you’re welcome to write for the Magazine! Being a good writer doesn’t necessarily mean that you also need to come up with the topic — we have a list of article specs ready to be written.

The Editorial Board maintains a Kanban board with cards representing specific articles. Each article starts as an Article Spec, and goes through various states to the very end when it’s published. Each column on the board represents a state.

If you want to write an article, just pick any card in the Article Spec column you like. First, assign yourself to the card of your choice, and move it to the In Progress column. That’s how you indicate to the rest of the community you’re working on it. Writing itself is done in the Magazine WordPress — log in, click new/post at the very top, and start writing.

We strongly encourage writers to read the Tips for Writers page in the docs.

Once you’re done writing, paste the preview URL from WordPress into the card. (You can get it using the Preview button at the top-right in the WordPress editor.) Then move the card to the Review column. An editor then reviews and moves it forward.

In some cases, an editor might ask for certain changes. When that happens, the card is moved back to In Progress. All you need to do is to make those changes and move it to the Review column again.

If you’re a first-time contributor, you’ll need to get access to WordPress and Taiga first. Start by introducing yourself on the Fedora Magazine mailing list, and an editor will set everything up for you.

See what article specs are ready to be written in the Article Spec column and you can just start writing.

Also, you can see the docs on writing articles for more info.

Becoming an editor

Looking for a longer-term contribution to the Magazine? Perhaps by setting the publishing schedule every week, reviewing ideas, editing articles, and attending the regular meeting? Become a member of the Editorial Board!

There are a few ways to start:

Help review ideas

The easiest start might be reviewing ideas and turning them into article spec. Provide feedback, suggest what should be included, and help decide what the article should look like overall. To do that, simply go to the issue tracker and start commenting.

Sometimes, we also receive ideas on the mailing list. Engaging with people on the mailing list is also a good way to contribute.

Attend the Editorial meeting

The Fedora Magazine editorial meeting is the place when we set the publishing schedule for the next week, and discuss various ideas regarding the Magazine.

You are very welcome to just attend one of the Editorial meetings we have. Just say hi, and maybe volunteer to edit an article (read below), create an image (read below), or even write something when we’re short on content.

Article reviews

When there is any card in the Review column on the board, that means the writer is asking for a final review. You can read their article and put a comment in the card with what you think about it. You might say it looks great, or point out specific things you believe should be changed (although that is rare).

Design a cover image

Every article published on the Magazine has a cover image. If you enjoy making graphics, you can contribute some. See the cover image guidelines in our docs for more info, and either ask on the list or come to one of our editorial meetings to get assigned one.

Recap

Fedora Magazine is a place to share useful and interesting content with people who love Linux by people who love Fedora. And it all happens thanks to people contributing ideas, writing articles, and helping to keep the Magazine running. If you like the idea of Fedora being popular, or people using open source, Fedora Magazine is a great place for anyone to discover and learn about all of that. Join us and be a part of Fedora’s success!