/emacs-buddy

Emacs Buddy initiative to help new Emacs users with their struggles

Emacs Buddy initiative

This is an experiment to setup an Emacs Buddy mentoring to make Emacs easier to learn. This means you can have an experienced somebody to periodically contact for your Emacs struggles. See below section for more.

Here a list of people available as buddies:

NameSummaryUseful Links
AndreaI use vanilla Emacs with an Org Mode literate configuration.https://ag91.github.io
I like to automate boring tasks with Emacs Lisp.
JustinI cobble together many packages and have written some org-mode extensions.https://justin.abrah.ms/dotfiles/emacs.htm
Happy to help guide some new folks around.
JeremyI hack on vanilla Emacs with a focus on note taking and software developmenthttps://takeonrules.com
I’m a veteran programmer new-ish to Emacs
KarthikI maintain a few packages on MELPA, and occasionally write about Emacs here:https://karthinks.com/tags/emacs
I live in Emacs, and have been using it since 2005. Not a programmer by trade.
RanjeethI use vanilla Emacs to manage my personal finances, programming,https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjkfxwk0EQI-ovUh8tXdX5A
org-mode for tracking and planning, org-roam for research.https://github.com/ranjeethmahankali
SebaI am a software developer, using vanilla Emacs since 2017ish. Package author.https://github.com/sebasmonia
I use Emacs for C#, Python, Common Lisp and light note taking.

If you want to contact one of the buddies above, ping me at my email address and I will get you in touch.

Further information: https://ag91.github.io/blog/2022/02/23/would-you-like-an-emacs-buddy-i-can-help/

The idea in more detail

TL;DR: I see the buddy as a companion that you can have a creative chat and that will try to help you to achieve Emacs enlightenment, not your personal problem solver. (And I am not concerned about scalability, because it is about creating a personal interaction through our commonality: enjoying Emacs.)

This initiative is about making your learning of Emacs more personal. An example of interaction I wish for:

> **EmacsUserLookingForBuddy**: I am a physiotherapist, I struggle > keeping track of my clients and they told me Org Mode is a great > tool for that. I started with Emacs tutorial, but now how can I > handle my clients??

**EmacsBuddy**: cool! You can find a great Org > Mode tutorial here and there is also a Reddit channel there. I can > help you better if you tell me some more about what is your struggle > with clients? For example, you struggle keeping track of > communication or timetable or ….? By the way, I got a back pain: > any chance you have a trick for that?! – continues –

So for me a buddy should nudge new users towards Emacs enlightenment focusing on the why they started using Emacs. A forum or a mailing list is more about solving a particular problem you have: the solution of such problems should be visible to everybody and fit a public forum. (Actually a great buddy would show their partner when is appropriate to move a conversation from private to a public channel!)

If I use Emacs to keep track of my weird hobby, I may find it helpful to get the point of view of my buddy on how to make the best out of my editor for that. And I can also just start chatting about something totally unrelated to the problem because I am enjoying the conversation.

Ideally you can make friends with the excuse!