[Gimp-developer] Adopt a development model similar to Jenkins?

[Sam Gleske <sam mxracer gmail com>]

Reference - https://github.com/jenkinsci

So recently I've been introduced to the way Jenkins CI does development and
progression of the platform.  I decided to write a plugin for Jenkins and
so I hopped over to their IRC channel to discuss with them about it.  First
thing they did was make me a member of the org.

Basically they have two organizational teams: Owners (consists of core
devs) and Everyone.

By making me a member of the Everyone group I got commit access to all
1000+ repositories associated with Jenkins plugins.  I can freely
contribute to any one of them.  However, I don't have commit access to the
core Jenkins repository which is the main application of the whole
platform.  I think this model is really cool.  Because basically when you
first commit a pull request the jenkinsadmin bot will tell you how the pull
requests work.

Here is a pull request as an example [1].  The Jenkins admin posted a
comment stating that the pull requester should read the link on pull
requests [2].  I think this is cool.  It's basically a policy that if any
plugin goes unnoticed pipe up and become a contributor with commit access
to the organizations.

Right now, GIMP has a place for users to dwonload plugins... but there is
no place where the source code of all of the plugins live and be maintained.

I went looking for the GIMP repository on github (it's nice that there is
one!) however it seems sadly buried in the GNOME project repositories.

I propose GIMP developer team take the initiative to create an
organizational account at github and form teams similar to Jenkins.  1.
Owners whom are the only ones with commit access to the GIMP core but can
still accept pull requests from outsiders.  And 2. an Everyone group in
which anybody who asks gets commit access to all of the plugins in the
organization area.

I think this would spice up and breath development life into the GIMP
project.  GIMP is much more than just gnome and I think the barrier to
entry to developing on GIMP should be so low you can trip over it.  Jenkins
does that well and I feel like by immediately being made a committer to all
of the plugins repositories it makes me want to jump up and start
contributing everywhere in Jenkins.

There's a few reasons for that...
1) I feel like I'm visiably part of the development process and have been
acknowledged.
2) I have a shiny cool Jenkins organization badge on my github user [3].
3) I think it's great that my friends and coworkers can blatantly see that
I have at some point or will continue to contribute to the Jenkins project
because the organizational badge is displayed on my profile.

GitHub makes coding and contributions fun.  I would love to have a GIMP
organizational badge in my profile.  I'm learning C++ in hopes to
contributing to GIMP [4] with more than just recommendations or the mailing
list.

Developers and contributors, tell me your thoughts.  I hope you get as
fired up about this as I feel.

SAM

[1]: https://github.com/jenkinsci/findbugs-plugin/pull/5
[2]:
https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Pull+Request+to+Repositories
[3]: https://github.com/sag47
[4]: https://github.com/sag47/cplusplus