We encourage our contributors to share your experiences working with community and your work.
If you are #newcomer then share about your first pr and your experience till date. We would love to see that and encourage others to do same. 
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I am not newcomer now but I remember when my first PR got merged about fixing an alignment in meshery.io website it was an amazing feeling of doing such work
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I have been contributing to Layer5’s projects for almost 6 months now. Reflecting back on my first PR, I remember fixing some icons for dark mode on the website layer5.io. It was an amazing feeling when I saw my first PR for merged, and I had no clue that it was the starting of an exciting journey for me in the best open source community!
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I am also not a newcomer but I remember, I started my contribution journey 
to Layer5 by opening some dark mode issues on the meshery.io website and fixing some margin issues on the layer5.io website. The feeling that comes when your first PR gets merged is something that is 
since then I have been contributing to this amazing community and continuously learning with other amazing folks 
.
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I may not be a newcomer, but I’m constantly learning and growing in this community. I still remember my first pull request. It involved making some small changes to the Makefile, but I ran into issues while building layer5 on my system. Initially, I felt discouraged and thought about giving up. However, the amazing individuals in the community stepped in, offering their support and guidance.
They patiently helped me troubleshoot the problem and dedicated their time to resolving my issue. I was mesmerized by the generosity and responsiveness of the community members. It truly highlighted why open source is cherished by so many people—the sense of community and willingness to assist one another.
To any newcomers currently facing challenges or struggling to grasp the codebase, I encourage you to not lose hope and keep trying. Rest assured, there will always be individuals ready to lend a helping hand and guide you through the obstacles you encounter. 
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Yesterday, @abdullah1308 stayed up until 5:30 AM making sure that a bug causing Meshery Cloud to crash was fixed. While this display of dedication just so happened to be on the weekend, I think it would be a mistake to call @abdullah1308 a weekend warrior. Warrior seems to suit him just fine.
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Hello Everyone , I am still a newcomer and the support I got from the community is worth sharing. I dont know much about tech stacks and started my contribution as editing readme and config.yml files. Despite my lack of knowledge of tech stack , my will to contribute made drove this. And that’s what it matters in Layer5 community - your will and determination to contribute. You dont necessarilyy need to be a pro !! All of the community members are there to assist you , even if your silliest doubts! I may not remember all of them but the ones I recall who helped in my journey(and are still helping) are
@vishalvivekm @Yash.Sharma @Savio.Dias @Karan @Shivam.Sood @Chadha93 and of course the man , the myth @Lee.
Thanks to all of them, I finally learned a tech and drafted my first proper PR to fix a website bug!( Fingers crossed )
My advice to all newcomers ,please feel free to ask your silliest of doubt . All you need is strong will to contribute! The members (including myself) will be there for you , when you needs us the most!
P.S I’m not done yet , will continue contributing!
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Wow, Now thats what they call a warrior, well done to him.
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It’s now around 2 weeks since I’m part of the amazing layer5 community. I would say any amount of words would be less to express how much helpful community members are to a newcomer. Specially if the Sardaar(head) of the community is like @Lee no one can stop the project from reaching the full potential. Talking about my experience I would it has been really a great journey till now. I’ve been the most productive these days. I’m still waiting for my PR’s to get merged to get that feeling 
. Special thanks to @Samyak.Shah @Lee @vishalvivekm for their constant help and support.
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Thanks man for the small token of appreciation by giving a shoutout!
You are already doing great and we are pleased to find such a passionate contributor who is also always helping and welcoming newcomers! 
Keep up your good work!
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My journey from the first meeting and initial difficulty in understanding the code base to finally achieving a deeper understanding has been quite amazing cheers to amazing meshmates, @Lee , and everyone. I remember feeling overwhelmed and confused during those first meetings, not being able to grasp the complexity of the project. However, with determination and persistence, I gradually understood the concepts and logic behind the code.
As I continued to delve into the project, I realized the huge potential it holds. Inspired by Layer5’s features and capabilities, I decided to develop my own service mesh analysis tool. It became my final semester project in college, and I put my heart and soul into it. The journey has been difficult, but incredibly rewarding.
Finally, the time has come for me to present my service mesh analysis tool to my professors and peers. The positive feedback and appreciation that I have received are really satisfying. It’s a validation of the effort I’ve put in and the progress I’ve made along my journey (link of the repo Meshify ). I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this project, as it not only broadened my technical skills but also taught me the importance of persistence and constant learning. I am excited to continue to explore new technologies and create innovative solutions inspired by experiences like these.
My Learnings and major takeaways for all the newcomers:
-
It may be hard for you to understand the terminologies being used in meetings and everywhere. just take things at your pace, slow down yourself and take that first step.
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Start reading documentation as this is the best way to get yourself comfortable
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Ask doubts in discussion forms, we are there to help you!
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Be consistent as there is so much to learn.
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Hello. I’m new here and trying to navigate through, can anyone hep me with this?
Welcome to the Layer community.Below are the couple of things that you can do to get started with the community and the projects!
- Fill the newcomers form to gain access to community resources.
- You can visit community handbook, a newcomer’s guide, to get yourself familiar with all the projects, maintainers, tech stacks used, and pretty much everything about Layer5
- Also don’t forget to attend newcomers meet that’s held every Thursday, Subscribe to the Community Calendar for updates on different meetings: https://layer5.io/community/calendar
- Explore different projects’ repositories , find issues you can work on, get 'em assigned to you and start your Journey .
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My journey has begun about a month ago when I became a part of the Layer5 community. 
It all started when @lee reached out to me on LinkedIn, generously dedicating his valuable time to connect with me. 
I am incredibly grateful that this opportunity came my way because it has led me to become a part of this extraordinary and proactive community.
Speaking about my first pull request (PR), I encountered some challenges while setting up the getnighthawkdev repository. 
Fortunately, I discovered discuss.layer5.io, where I was able to resolve my issue with the help of the community. 
This experience has been nothing short of amazing for me.
I also started participating in the community’s meeting calls, during which I’ve had the chance to learn how other developers collaborate on reviewing changes. 
This aspect has stood out as particularly awesome, as it showcases how people come together, offer suggestions for improvement, and facilitate learning – precisely what an open-source community should be all about. 
One of the highlights for newcomers like me is the newcomers’ call, which I thoroughly enjoyed and found immensely valuable. 
I am eager for more experiences and will continue contributing enthusiastically. 
Thank you @Lee, @Yash_Sharma , @vishalvivekm , @Sudhanshu_Dasgupta , @Chadha93 , @gopi.vaibhav, and all other community members for helping me out whenever I needed help. 
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@Unique absolutely, the Newcomers meetings held every Thursday are purpose-built to answer this very question (and then some). Meeting details can be found on https://meet.layer5.io (see the big, yellow button).
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I’m excited to join the Meshery community! I reached out to @Lee about my interest in joining the community and he reached out promptly when I expressed my interest, making the whole process even more rewarding. I can’t wait to make my first contribution and be a part of this incredible project!
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