content/pages/contributing.md

   1 ---
   2 title: Contributing
   3 ---
   4
   5 freenode relies on several interoperating pieces of software to provide
   6 an open environment for peer-directed projects. In the spirit of
   7 [our philosophy][philosophy], we use free and open source software to do so.
   8
   9 We collaborate with upstream development teams for the projects powering
  10 the network to ensure the specific needs of our communities can be met
  11 appropriately. In addition, there are various custom-developed tools
  12 and modules that we make available.
  13
  14 The majority of our software is available on [our GitHub profile][github]
  15 and contributions are always welcome. You can find an overview of open
  16 tasks [on our projects board][roadmap].  We encourage you to contact us
  17 in `#freenode-dev` if you want to contribute or have any questions.
  18
  19 ## The platform
  20
  21 ### IRCd
  22
  23 We're in the process of migrating to
  24 [Solanum](https://github.com/solanum-ircd/solanum), a joint
  25 effort by freenode and OFTC to develop an IRCd tailored to the needs of
  26 centrally-managed, community-oriented IRC networks. Solanum is a fork
  27 of Charybdis, once freenode's upstream, but seeks to continue where it
  28 left off and is managed as an independent project. Users are encouraged
  29 to submit issues and patches directly.
  30
  31 ### Services
  32
  33 To provide registration of accounts and channels as well as related
  34 functionality, we run Atheme, an IRC services package. We maintain
  35 [a fork](https://github.com/freenode/atheme) from which to coordinate
  36 development; you are welcome to submit patches either to upstream
  37 Atheme, or to our fork if you'd rather leave upstreaming your changes
  38 to us. There is also a collection of freenode-specific extension modules
  39 we maintain directly.
  40
  41 ### Website
  42
  43 Our website [freenode.net](https://github.com/freenode/web-7.0) is built on the
  44 idea that freenode is a community plattform that currently uses IRC.
  45 We prioritise information about freenode, and the policies and philosophy
  46 that guides us. The website is also home to important documentation on
  47 the usage of the network. While we want to encourage users to ask questions
  48 in the `#freenode` channel, some information is better kept in our knowledge
  49 base.
  50
  51 [philosophy]: https://freenode.net/philosophy
  52 [github]: https://github.com/freenode
  53 [roadmap]: https://github.com/orgs/freenode/projects/1
  54
  55 ## The Development Team
  56
  57 When contributing to freenode you will get to interact closely with our
  58 development team.