I recently had my first experience in filing issues with an open source project.
In the process of making code.aidanmontare.net, I was having difficulty getting everything to work. I could access most of the web interface, but couldn’t get some resources to load properly. Once I got the web interface to work, I couldn’t get cloning to work over SSH or HTTP.
The community guide for installing GitLab with Apache was based upon a source code installation of GitLab, and so unfortunately it gave little help on the important parts of the configuration.
I was really fed up with my progress, so I filed a GitHub issue. I had seen more people get help on the GitHub account for GitLab than the GitLab account for GitLab, so I thought I’d file my issue there.
Then I went to bed.
Several days later, no one had commented on my issue. But I kept researching the problem and trying people’s suggestions, all while posting updates to my GitHub issue. Eventually, I found what works (my guide here) in some discussions elsewhere.
So I went back to GitHub and closed my issue.
Luckily, everything works now and my issue was fixed, even if I had to do it myself.
The amazing thing about the internet is that given enough time, you can solve nearly anything with just your brain, some stubbornness, and a web browser.
I would encourage people with similarly stubborn problems to keep looking for solutions, but also not the be afraid of asking for help from the project’s community. It’s not nearly as scary as it seems.
I don’t mean to complain about the GitLab community, except that it would be nice to know where I should post new issues (since there are multiple projects, with versions on both GitLab and GitHub).
I plan on contributing my working configuration settings to the GitLab community in the coming days so others won’t have to struggle as I did.