Re: Lowering the barrier

[Who <mailforwho googlemail com>]

On Nov 11, 2007 3:21 PM, Elijah Newren <newren gmail com> wrote:
> On Nov 11, 2007 3:16 AM, Sebastian Pölsterl <marduk k-d-w org> wrote:
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> > Hash: SHA1
> >
> > Who schrieb:>
> > > *** In the case of 'Gnome Love' bugs - perhaps people people could
> > > offer to 'mentor' on them, so anyone needing to ask questions in
> > > attempts to fix them can have a ready contact. I understand, of
> > > course, that time is important and it may well be quicker for that
> > > mentor to fix the bug themselves - even so, perhaps it is worth it?
> > >
> > I totally agree on this. Each GNOME love bugs should have a mentor and a
> > short explanation how to contact that mentor. If you know that you can
> > ask someone who's familiar with the particular application it's much
> > much easier to start contributing, instead of programming without
> > "supervision" where you'll feel lost pretty soon.
>
> Go to http://bugzilla.gnome.org/reports/gnome-love.cgi.  You'll see
> the following:
>
> This report shows bugs marked with the gnome-love keyword. That
> keyword is used as follows:
>     Marking a bug with this keyword means that you're willing to help
> someone fix the bug, or that it should be fixable by a beginner
> without any help. This should ONLY be set by a maintainer or people
> familiar with the code base, and ONLY when it looks like a project
> suitable for a new developer looking for a task.
>
snip
>
> Is the gnome-love keyword being misused, or are potential contributors
> just unaware of this?
>

I am not able to tell you whether the keywords are being misused as I
do not have enough experience of what is/isn't possible and how well
people respond to requests for help. Sorry

BUT. on the other hand, I think the information problem is real:

http://live.gnome.org/GtkLove doesn't even mention that anyone marking
a bug as being a GnomeLove bug should be prepared to help a beginner
to solve it (this is also likely to lead to 'misuse', I guess):

"Love Bug List

This list is intended as collection of bugs suitable for novice GTK+
hackers. Add items to it (adding the 'gnome-love' keyword to the bug)
only if you think they could be fixed in a reasonable time frame by a
free software developer without much experience in GTK+. If you are
unsure, add it. Please do not use this list as a personal whishlist of
issues you'd like to see fixed. "

Specifically, I think that the "If you are unsure, add it" comment
could lead to frustration?

Also
http://live.gnome.org/GnomeLove does not make it specifically clear
anywhere that there are people to support anyone fixing a 'GnomeLove'
bug, in contrast The 'Mentored Projects' sections is specifically
mentioned, http://live.gnome.org/MentoredProjects, with mentoring
being a clear component - could that page also mention that a
GnomeLove bug, in it's own way, is like a mentored project? I guess
just a few tweaks of both pages could be very useful here?

Hope that helps,

Who