FAQ page for Instructor checkout

[elichad]

With the upcoming changes to checkout, when a trainee tries to submit a GitHub contribution and provides a link to a repo outside our organisations, the form will not allow them to submit. For example, they may try to submit a link to a branch on a personal fork.

Previously, all URLs were accepted by the form. This change means that there will not be any direct feedback from the ITT to support the trainee in correcting their submission, and a trainee may get stuck if they can't figure out what they need to do. We provide contact information, but requiring people to email us for help is a barrier.

It would therefore be useful to have an FAQ-type page describing the most common errors in checkout submissions and how to resolve them (based on historical ITT experiences). This could also point to the #checkout-support and #first-time-contributors Slack channels, as well as other GitHub-related training resources we have available. The page should be linked in the AMY submission form, AMY community member docs, and the checkout pages of the instructor training lesson.

Existing documentation (non-exhaustive list, please link other work if you're aware of it):

• Handbook https://github.com/carpentries/docs.carpentries.org/blob/main/topic_folders/maintainers/contributing.md
• Instructor Training https://carpentries.github.io/instructor-training/checkout#contributions

[karenword]

In case it's useful, here is a helpscout template designed to respond to an empty forked repository: https://secure.helpscout.net/settings/saved-replies/99021/2826211 and another for responding to general inquiries about lesson contributions: https://secure.helpscout.net/settings/saved-replies/99021/1936710

[maneesha]

In the error that the user gets, does it say "Please be sure that you are contributing to one of these organizations: [list]" or something like that?

[elichad]

Help text:

A link to the activity, if there is one. If you served at a workshop, enter the workshop website. If you made a GitHub contribution, ensure your link is to a repository in one of the GitHub organisations owned by The Carpentries.

Error text:

This URL is not associated with a repository in any of the GitHub organisations owned by The Carpentries. If you need help resolving this error, please contact us using the details at the top of this form.

Both of these appear above the URL field, so they're right next to each other. And at the top of the form there's the [email protected] address (we can't link it directly in the error text for Django reasons)

Screenshot: