This page lists a few volunteer projects that we're looking for help with. Before reading this page, you should have filled out the basic volunteering form with your name, email address and skills. Check back periodically for additions and updates about volunteer projects. Thank you for your time and interest!

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We need people to help read experience reports
Reports that get published to the site go through an involved process of review. At least 2, and usually 3 people have read each report before it goes live. The first stage of this is called Triaging. We need triagers. For details, please read the Triager Guidelines (a couple of the links on that page go to crew-only areas and require logins. Ignore those if you are not a crew member). If you are excited about this after reading the Guidelines, please send a short letter of intent to volunteers@erowid.org. Please include details on how much time you've spent reading reports. Minimum requirement: 4 hrs/week, particularly in the two-week training period. Serious inquiries only please.

Programming
[Skillset required: PHP, MySQL, javascript jQuery, Photoshop web-design related, HTML5...] One of the tasks that has been on our list for a long time is a major/complete face lift of the experience vaults. Here's an example of a page: https://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp_group.php?Group=Shulgin_Archives/.

We would like to hear from anyone interested in proposing 2 different design concepts (color schemes, with basic CSS and header/footer components) for this exp_group Experience Vault page. Contact volunteers - at - erowid.org.

In the end, we'd want to head towards a completely new design for all of the experience vaults, but at this point, what we'd like to do is get some new concept (html, css, very simple jquery) for the exp_group page. Both interface components and visual design components.

Data Scout
Do you already read a related web forum, newsgroup, email list, or journal? We are looking for volunteers who will monitor a particular data stream, watching for information or content that is not already archived, mentioned, or linked to from the appropriate vaults at Erowid. Tasks would include regular reading of your chosen non-Erowid forum, the ability to recognize new and interesting commentary/information as well as the ability to use other information sources to verify the data. Then taking the time to check to see whether Erowid already covers the topic adequately, and if not, contacting forum authors for permission to archive or summarize their posts (whichever is appropriate). If you are excited about this project, please send a short letter of intent to volunteers@erowid.org

Link Checker: Various Vaults
Is there a vault that you'd like to keep your eye on, to make sure the links stay up-to-date? Pick one or more, follow each link, making sure it works and that it goes to the correct page, then send a report of the changes that need to be made (links to be removed and links that need to be updated). Let us know at volunteers@erowid.org if this interests you [include name of Vault(s)].

Note about updating links and vaults: If we link to a bulletin board post, it *must* be archived/cached on Erowid. Bulletin board links often die within weeks, and constantly updating them is a huge amount of maintenance. So if you find a valuable post, please contact the author and ask permission for it to be archived on Erowid (and find out if they prefer to have their email info removed).

Essays: Families & Psychoactives Vault We would like to hear well-thought-out, retrospective reports on people's relationships to psychoactives; growing up, in adult life, among friends, and within the family. What attitudes surrounded you growing up (parents, caretakers)? What if anything was said about psychoactives in the home and at school? How did these things affect you? Reports can be submitted via the Experience Report submission form. Priority will be placed on well-written accounts.

Updating Vaults
Sort of like Data Scout, but different. Many of the existing vaults need to be expanded. We could use help with plant and chemical vaults that need to have the basic information (legal status, chemistry, links, etc.) filled in. If you have an interest in expanding an existing vault, please send a short letter of intent to volunteers@erowid.org

Foreign Language Resources
We're interested in expanding our foreign language resources. If you know of an Erowid page that has been translated into another language, please let us know. Please check the Foreign Language Vault first, it needs updating.

And the country-specific law pages need improvement as well. Eventually we'd like them to all look somewhat like the Finland Drugs Laws & Policy page, which features a narrative summary followed by links.

Please contact volunteers@erowid.org if you have an interest in helping improve one of these vaults. We currently do not have the capacity to oversee wide-scale translation, but we can build on what is already existing on the site.

This page is updated as existing and new volunteer positions are defined.