During Google Code-in, the mentors and other participants will be chatting to you in our chat forums like Zulip and Gitter (and we also use Telegram and IRC!), reviewing Pull Requests on GitHub, Merge Requests on GitLab, and other collaborative services too!

To make it easier, it's essential for you to have a globally consistent username.

Think of a username that you would like to use.

Please do not use your real name in your username.

Be creative!

If you cant think of something which isnt your real name, try an online username generator like

• LassPass (choose "easy to read"!), or
• https://username-generator.appspot.com/ (https://github.com/PurpleBooth/username-generator)

Or use these Python tools to generate a username

• https://github.com/awesmubarak/username_generator_cli
• https://github.com/dorzel/username-generator
• https://github.com/vardrop/gen-pkmn-name
• https://github.com/EugeneDanini/nickname-generator (quite basic, but ideal for building your own algorithm)

And more tools can be found at https://github.com/topics/username-generator

During Google Code-in 2017, students like you helped to build a username availability checker which you can use at https://username-check.herokuapp.com/ . The source code is at https://github.com/manu-chroma/username-availability-checker/ . You can read a blog post about it at https://opensource.googleblog.com/2018/03/my-first-open-source-project-and-google.html

With that tool, you can investigate whether someone else is already using the username you would like to use.

If you select a username which someone is already using, you wont be able to use that username consistently on the Internet, and you might be confused with them.

Keep trying different usernames until you have found a username that is not used by anyone else!

Now that you have found a globally available username, create accounts on all developer sites, so nobody else can claim that username and prevent you from using your username.

The two most important sites to have a consistent username are:

• https://GitHub.com
• https://GitLab.com

On GitHub and GitLab, create an account.

Dont worry if you see a credit card field. It is only for businesses who want to use those platforms with large teams.

With your new identity you can join the coala Zulip. Use "Log in with GitHub" option to jump straight in without having to fill in any forms.

Yup, just say hello, and someone will welcome you to the community.

There is even an "offtopic" stream where you can chat about anything at all, completely unrelated to coala. Being part of coala is not just about technical coding. Many of our developers are not active coding any more, but they still drop in regularly to catch up on the offtopic conversations.

• Zulip #offtopic
• gitter #offtopic

You can become a 'newcomer' in coala org by Requesting access on GitLab at https://gitlab.com/groups/coala/roles/newcomers/ .

Choose "Reporter" access level in the form.

If dont have a consistent username, your request will be discarded.

If your username is OK, an administrator will approve your GitLab request within a day, and they will also add you to the coala newcomer team on GitHub.

There are many avatar creation tools which will help you quickly create a distinctive unique avatar.

Here is a Python tool you can use: https://github.com/maethor/avatar-generator (Use the git version, not the PyPi release, which is a bit old).