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Comment by the8472 | Hacker News Reader

That depends largely on what you want to edit. Websites might be static pages, generated from some simpler markup language or hosted on a form of CMS. Documentation is often generated from source code comments to some extent.

If you can't easily figure out where it is stored and how it is generated you should probably ask along with your inquiry whether the maintainers would be interested in contributions in that area.

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Okay, so, you are suggesting I figure out who the project lead is and email them as my first step?

The preferred form of communication also depends on the project. Do they have an issue tracker? If so you could probably file one along the lines of "Page X could use some improvement" and ask whether they're interested and how it's done.

Some projects use mailing lists, forums or even irc.

Open, group-based forms of communication are usually preferred because it allows anyone qualified to respond instead of pinning it on a particular person.

Thank you. This helps. I get told all the time "Just do X!" and then I try X and it blows up in my face because it turns out you only do X under (long list of conditions that no one ever told me and assumed I knew).

One thing I forgot to mention, this also depends on project size.

Larger projects, especially corporate- or foundation-backed ones, might have less-technical staff dedicated to the web presence/PR/outreach etc. which might use other communication channels than the developers.

> Then I try X and it blows up in my face because it turns out you only do X under (long list of conditions that no one ever told me and assumed I knew).

You don't necessarily have to know. Some exploration and just asking for pointers is often required.

I get anxious about this too sometimes, but in my experience the "long lists of conditions that no one ever told me and assumed I knew" are hardly ever relevant.

I don't get anxious. I get tired of doing what people told me would work and having it go really badly.

Complaining about freely volunteered advice people give you in a friendly and helpful spirit is a good way to avoid getting it.

Well, that isn't what I was doing. Since you are not among those being actually helpful to me in this discussion, you are more than welcome to stay out of it if you feel that some remark of mine somehow constitutes bad behavior. I have upvoted every single reply that was useful to me and said thanks twice.

What were you doing? If someone volunteers advice, just be appreciative and try it if you want. Don't slag them off if it doesn't work out for you. It's not their fault they don't understand everything about what you need to do to implement their advice.

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