Ideas on Diversity in Code Contributions

I read PHP only marginally better than I read Chinese in the dark. But I'm still here. I don't think that just getting more diverse coders will in any way help much.

The other way to do it is to figure out what are some of the intractable problems in various communities and get a group of coders to build a website (or better yet an install profile) for community groups serving these communities. Then what you'll get is a body of users aware of drupal, some of whom will flow along the natural path from end-user to admin to contributor. Notice I said contributor, not coder, because Drupal needs just as much help on documentation for code and documentation on how to use the darn module than anything else.

So, focus on helping the communities that the coders would come from, and they might come. I'm making no promises.

And, could you explain what the Full Project Application process is to those who weren't in Chi-town?

I think a part of this is lowering the perceived barriers to entry, to reduce the perception that Drupal developers are this exclusive club. We have things like novice issues and the patch contributors' guide, but I don't think they're promoted enough. Think how often do we see comments in the issue queues like "Sorry, I don't know how to make a patch." There is detailed documentation on how to create and apply patches on d.o, but people don't find it. I think even something like linking the patch docs automatically on individual issues could make a difference.

Furthermore, I think it's important to treat novice contributors gently and respectfully (both on IRC and in issue queues). I myself did not start contributing for years, because I was intimidated by the module queues and by people nitpicking my code or roasting my patch ideas.

People who have background in open source when they come to Drupal might contribute readily and not see any problem. For people with different backgrounds, however, the whole system can seem alien and unapproachable. (Think about the difference it makes if someone had the opportunity to build their own computer and install linux in high school or college. They're generally the RTFM crowd, the people who will feel confident to contribute. It's the people who didn't have such opportunities that we should reach out to.)

Contributing a full project was the fourth and final step for me. At first I was afraid to even comment on issues. Then I started commenting on issues and testing patches. Next I started submitting my own patches. Finally someone asked me to co-maintain a module I was submitting patches for, and from that experience I gained the confidence to create my own projects. The process took over four years, even though I was an experienced PHP developer at the beginning. However, I do think it's a natural progression.