[development] Drupal 4.7.0 beta2 / rc?

[Chris Johnson]

Dries Buytaert wrote:

>   2. The number of bugs that need fixing grows steadily: http:// 
> drupal.org/project/issues? 
> projects=3060&versions=9728&states=1,8,13,14,2.  How do we encourage  
> more people to help fix bugs?  How do we help people fix bugs?
> 
>      I think there is a need for people dedicated to helping  Drupal.org 
> users turn forum topics into bug reports, as well as for  people 
> dedicated to reviewing, categorizing and harvesting bug  reports.  Is 
> the problem description clear?  Is the problem easy to  reproduce?  Is 
> it really critical?  If not, help them improve their  bug report.  
> Replying with one-liners like 'File a bug report!' or  'RTFM' is not 
> considered helping in this context.  The goal is to  assist, to be 
> helpful, to pull them on board and hopefully to make  them "stick".  
> Similarly, I think there is room for people that  review patches like 
> teachers would.  In short, we need friendly hosts  that help people make 
> their first steps in their Drupal career.
> 
> Suggestions and concrete action points are welcome,

How about posting various links (like the one above) both in the mailing lists 
and in an article on drupal.org front page that direct people of various 
talents to where they can find a list of things they can do?

Some examples:

* A link to a list of bug reports that need to be verified.  People who can 
install Drupal can do so and test the problem and report back that it exists 
or does not exist, saving the programmers who will would have to fix it much time.

* A link to a list of bug reports which need to be edited for clear bug 
descriptions can be used by people who do not feel skilled enough to find the 
problem, fix it and create a patch, but yet who have enough programming and 
English-language skills that they can help clarify the problem for the 
programmers who can find and fix it, thus saving the latter group time and 
effort.  Might be hard to do this, since there isn't an Issue status that 
corresponds directly to it.

In general, give the things that need doing more visibility, and group them by 
the kinds of skills or actions needed to do them.

..chrisxj