At a recent LA Drupal coffee meeting, I proposed that interested LA Drupal participants join forces to form what I uncreatively called Ninja Squads with the mission of taking on modules that are this >< far from being releasable or stable, and getting them over the hump. This would be unofficial, and would not involve actually taking over modules, although that might be an option for individual participants.
This would be a phenomenal contribution that wouldn't require an unreasonable commitment on the part of any single member. It would be open to folks at every skill level, and would provide an excellent experience in learning by doing.
This idea can also be part of into the August Pre-Lock Code Sprint inasmuch as folks who participate in this before the sprint will be better prepared to contribute and folks who participate in the sprint will be prime recruitment candidates for this.
Bear in mind that nothing builds your Drupal credibility like contributing.
This is open to everyone.
If you are interested, please comment.
Comments
I'd be interested in helping
I'd be interested in helping with this. My Drupal experience is isn't high having just started a few months ago but I'm looking for more opportunities to learn.
Interested, of course
Count me in. I write. I code.
Chris Charlton, Author & Drupal Community Leader, Enterprise Level Consultant
I teach you how to build Drupal Themes http://tinyurl.com/theme-drupal and provide add-on software at http://xtnd.us
Willing to help
I have a fair grasp of drupal, and I find that I get myself into more trouble than anything writing php, but I'm always up to learn.
Start with a list of such modules?
I code. Having a list of modules, the "ok" from the maintainer for assistance is the first step?
I'M IN.
I'm In.
I'm working on a job that's killing me right now ~
?But I'll come back and post contrib comments.
"Bear in mind that nothing builds your Drupal credibility like contributing."
?what - who's counting? :-)
If we all threw in 5cents (where's the cents key, ¢, there cut and paste, anyway,) then we'd at least have a box of donuts.
?hah? [well all I'm saying is if everyone just contributed on a small scale, it would be neat. We would have something or it would make an great impact.] ?If we had just 35 people give 30 minutes constructively that's 17.5hrs people power. Not a bad start.?
"This idea can also be part of into the August Pre-Lock Code Sprint inasmuch as folks who participate in this before the sprint will be better prepared to contribute"
I totally agree. I'm in on pre-Sprint and I think it's a great idea.
I just want to point out three things:
-- I think it is beneficial to have a few periodic meetings like Coffee Talk or even just a gathering to talk about who can work on what and how. And have the ability to ask questions.
-- There are a lot of things to do that can make a difference and discussing them can shed some light. Even if it isn't just fixing modules. There are many ways to contribute or things to work on.
-- ?Just stressing the fact also you stated previously so that people know - You don't have to be a 'programmer' to help or participate in the CodeSprint.
Also, I like what else you said at the coffee meeting about focusing on the overall benefit / betterment of Drupal as a whole.
I'm in on that.
Call to action says: Pick a date / venue and let's go over it.
Coffee Connection worked for me. Good middle of the road location.
I'll even sponsor the drinks given its two shakes from payday and the wind's blowing in the NE direction.
Order the jackets!
Count me in!
I´m a big believer in mindsharing &, hence, why I´m such an avid open source aficionado. So let me know how someone not as seasoned a programmer as some of the others who´ve posted here can chip in.
Along these lines, Cary, the mini-lightning talk I wanted to give last night was similar in nature to your idea. The core testing team (testing.drupal.org) is having a bit of a bottleneck testing patches as some of the servers are crashing so they put out a call to sysadmin types to help troubleshoot some of the problems. The mission of the testing team is to test patches from core developers that fix issues in Drupal (& help resolve some of the issues in the queue). As I type this, I realize that it´s VERY similar in scope to what you propose so there´s no reason, imho, that we couldn´t incorporate the two. Your call is more to work on modules so if I´m out of line for suggesting this, just smack me down now. ;)
As I think of it even more, it seems we´ll be doing both at the pre-freeze code sprint so your idea to get a head start is a great one!
I would like to help
I would like to help and I would like to learn. How do we get started? Design dog suggested a meeting, that might be a good way to kick it off. Cary do you have any prime candidate modules in mind?