FOSDEM 2026: Badges Hackfest Opportunity

Project Discussion
, , ,
1

Continuing the discussion mentioned on https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/fosdem-2026-join-fedora-general-organization-and-collaboration/172517/2 , and being involved with Fedora Badges for so long, I’d like to propose organizing a Badges Hackfest.

Objectives

This hackfest would focus on three main areas:

1. Understanding and Enhancing the Gamification Model

  • Assess the current value badges provide to the existing community

  • Evaluate their effectiveness in onboarding new contributors

2. Technical Improvements

  • Analyze how the new migration impacts user engagement

  • Identify ways to accelerate the rollout of the updated design

3. Problem-Solving and Innovation

  • Address primary challenges with realistic timelines

  • Explore opportunities for expanding the badges system

Methodology

To achieve these objectives, we would:

Data Collection & Analysis:

  • Gather badge ownership statistics (frequency and volume)

  • Track contribution and interaction patterns of badge owners

  • Monitor onboarding metrics following community events

  • Measure retention rates for new contributors

  • Conduct targeted interviews to understand the gamification model’s community impact

Key Questions to Address:

  • How can we better communicate the value of badges to newcomers?

  • What has been the effect of the Forgero migration on user interactions and eventually on badges?

  • What barriers are preventing the deployment of the redesigned badges system?

    • Logistical challenges

    • Technical obstacles

    • Requirements gathering

    • Automation needs

I want to emphasize that this is just a starting point. Many contributors have already done valuable work in these areas, and their expertise will be crucial to making this hackfest successful.

Timing-wise, the window between CentOS Connect and FOSDEM seems ideal—perhaps a 3-4 hour session. The goal would be to emerge with concrete objectives and a flexible roadmap that gives our efforts clearer direction.

I encourage everyone to share their thoughts and suggestions on this idea :slight_smile:

2 Likes
2

Good idea, I would suggest making a Fedora Magazine article on it to gain wider circulation.

These threads drop off after a day or two into obsucurity.

1 Like
5

My 2 cents.

One of the things @jflory7 mentioned to @abompard and me was that the hackfest / workshop would focus on moving the repos from GitLab and Pagure to Forgejo (along with the necessary workflows for the automation). Having codebase, documentation and assets across three forges made it difficult for folks to contribute, I would assume so it is reasonable to have it as the first priority. As for the other points, I would be wary of expanding to them until we have an idea of what the timeline looks like, and we have connected with the primary maintainers of the Fedora Badges stack to understand its current state. I have mentioned it here[1] that the we have a few folks slowly chipping away at the large cookie due it not being a priority and as such, we would absolutely hate to see the outcomes from the hackfest go to waste, if all it ends up doing it painting new targets for the same set of two to three folks contributing to the foundational part so far.

I would not really delve much into the metrics side. Not because I don’t want to - but because I want the likes of @gwmngilfen, @jspaleta, @rwright etc. (who are already doing it) to set the standards for the how the community health is being evaluated, instead of introducing one more target to pursue that has overlaps with the Fedora Commops[2] efforts. Then it is only a matter of aligning all the Datanommer entries from Tahrir Messages to work on just what information that we want out of it. That also reminds me the discussions around the Fedora Mindshare’s discussions on the remit of the Recognition Service[3] and the following call for feedback on the current efforts on revamp project[4] - that should take precedence IMO. Oh also - we need more badge pushers. Replacing one of the more ambitious / time-consuming parts of the proposals with this self-contained workshop might help unblock the badge proposals as they come.

  1. ↩︎

  2. ↩︎

  3. ↩︎

  4. ↩︎

1 Like