This was a quiet week as we continued to test and refine a new request composing tool. While it’s not quite ready to roll out publicly yet, but we’re still looking for more feedback.

For past site updates, check out all of MuckRock’s release notes.

Test our new request composer

Thank you to everyone who has reached out to help test the new request composer! We still have a few more slots for testers, so if you’re interested in spending 20 minutes or so screen sharing with us and providing feedback, we’d love your help.

Please reach out to us with how you’ve used the site in the past (if at all), what you do like and don’t like about the current request composer tool, and what new features you’d like to see in the new composer.

Come hack on MuckRock

There are lots of ways you can contribute to making MuckRock better. If you find a bug you can email us directly or open an issue.

If you do the latter, please search open issues first to make sure it hasn’t already been reported. If it has been reported previously, please leave an additional comment letting us know it’s an issue for you, particularly if you can provide more details about when it crops up or what you think is causing the problem.

For those who want to contribute design, code, or otherwise more directly to the site, we have a developer channel on the MuckRock Slack. We’re also part of Code for Boston’s weekly hack nights, which take place Tuesday evenings in Kendall Square. We might not make it to every one of them, so if you want to meet up there it’s a good idea to check in on Slack first. We will not be at this Tuesday’s meet up, due to travel.

In particular, we’re looking for designers who are interested in helping us find ways to make all of our tools and data more accessible and more fun to use. We’ve got a relatively simple front end stack, so if you’re interested in helping hundreds of thousands of people better understand public records and the importance of transparency, please get in touch!

Image via Wikimedia Commons