Posted by mrded on September 29, 2015 at 7:44pm
Bellow is a summary of BOF's talk on DrupalCon Barcelona.
The problems:
- Useful modules are being abandoned because maintainers are not supporting them
- New Drupal contributors are creating “useless” modules just to get access for creating full projects
Solutions:
- A page listing abandoned modules that is well promoted
- New members may find a module they would like to support, and become a co-maintainer by solving issues and submitting patches
- Grant co-maintainers with the "Create Full Projects" permission
Benefits:
- New users will get a mentor (current maintainer)
- New users will not contribute useless modules
- New users will learn by working on real project (more fun)
- Maintainers will transfer a module to the person they trust
Possible problem of that:
- Co-maintainers may drop coding standards after their first module is allowed
- Bad maintainers may teach bad practises
Possible solution of that:
- Each commit should be checked for code standards – even commits by module owners
Comments
New users will get a mentor
This is an interesting idea, however, often the reason a given module is abandoned is because the maintainer is busy, gone, or not interested in working on it any more.
So...
So would not promoting a page with abandoned modules allow others to possibly support it and let the old maintainers live in peace? And would not a new maintainer present the urge for the old maintainer to possibly become involved again as a mentor? It's only human nature.
I think the idea has merits.
I agree. The idea in general
I agree. The idea in general has merits. But is the notion that maintainers of abandoned modules will be willing to become mentors based on any facts? I don't think that is a workable part of the plan.
I agree. The idea in general
(double posted)
+1
+1
Firoz
I suppose that we could have
I suppose that we could have some contrib mentors like we have core mentors. Not knowing all about the module is not really what matters the most. We need people that can help to learn how to use an issue queue, what are the differences between a good module and a bad one, make some review to show example, etc.
I know a few people more involved in contrib because it's also easier than core. I'm quite sure they could be interested in that kind of project.