[documentation] Summary from March 20 IRC meeting

[Addison Berry]

Woohoo! Thanks to everyone that came to the IRC meeting today. It was  
great to have so many folks working on this. We met on freenode's  
#drupal-docs channel for about 40 minutes to discuss the proposed  
outline for the new "Contributing to Drupal" section of the handbook.  
We tried to stay as focused on that as possible and tabled outside  
discussion. The entire transcript for the IRC session (unmodified) can  
be found at
http://pastebin.com/f683e0503 (this pastebin is set to never expire.)

So here are the bullet points of what we did:
I had my latest outline set up on google docs so everyone could see it  
and I could update it real-time. The google doc is here and publicly  
viewable:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=df9k2brz_8g7mtwwfk . If anyone on this  
list would like to be able to edit the doc, send me your google  
account email and I will send you an invite. You can catch me in IRC  
or send an email to me using my contact form either on d.o or my site: http://rocktreesky.com/contact
In the midst of our discussion some other topics came up. One of them  
that we would like to slate as related to the this, but its own beast,  
is the contribute and support landing pages. How do we funnel people  
to the right place and let support seekers know along the way that  
giving support is a great way to get it as well?
A particular issue outside of the outline itself was what to name it.  
There was definitely a feeling that "contributing" evoked different  
things for folks (coming from an outside/newbie perspective) and often  
not in line with what it really means to us within the community.  
Catch suggested "Getting the most out of Drupal"  and that was well  
received. Other ideas and suggestions on this are welcome, as is the  
titling of the items within the outline (some definitely need work.)
The outline itself stayed largely intact with a touch of moving things  
and adding a few more items like Why get involved? and Abandoned  
modules.

NEXT MEETING:
We're just getting started! Let's plan the next meeting so folks have  
some notice on it. We had pretty good turnout for 5pm EST but I know  
that doesn't work well for everyone (notably the Docs lead sepeck.) So  
meetings should preferably be 6pm PST (9pm EST) for a weekday or on  
the weekend. Weekend may be more flexible for more people so I'd like  
to propose we shoot for **Saturday, MARCH 29**. I want to set and  
announce the next meeting time by this coming Monday, March 24.

NEXT STEPS:
For the Contributing section, let's flesh out the outline more so we  
can start building it next weekend. Once we have the outline, we need  
to:
1) determine what already exists and needs to be moved (and possibly  
edited up)
2) determine what is new material to be written
3) create tasks (issue queue baby) and workflow for getting it done as  
smoothly as possible
4) assign tasks to folks so we don't step on each others' toes and/or  
duplicate work

Here is the outline now (also, for the latest see http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=df9k2brz_8g7mtwwfk) 
. Feel free to either post comments/suggestions back to this list or  
ask for access to edit the googledoc:

Getting the most out of Drupal
     * Why get involved?
     * Get a drupal.org account
     * Talk with the Community
           o How to effect change/join forces
           o Issue queue
           o Forums
           o IRC
           o Mailing lists
           o Planet
           o external sites (g.d.o, dojo)
     * Drupal's work space: the Issue Queue
           o Guidelines
           o Searching
     * Report a problem
     * Give feedback
     * Documentation
           o Adding new pages
           o Editing and deleting pages
           o Docs issue queue
           o Join the docs team
     * Translating (this procedure will change to not require CVS  
anymore)
     * Testing
           o What code to test
           o Applying patches
           o How to test and report findings
     * Contributing code
           o Help existing code: Patching bugs and features
                 + Finding issues to work on
                 + Creating patches
                 + Submitting patches
           o Maintain a Project: Modules, Themes and Installation  
Profiles
                 + Getting a CVS account
                       # Sandbox policy
                 + Starting a new project
                       # Things to consider
                       # Add code to CVS: Step-by-step
                             * pages for each client (CLI, Tortoise,  
CVSGUI, Eclipse, etc.)
                       # Create the project on drupal.org
                       # Project node
                       # Handbook page
                 + Maintaining a project
                       # How to be a good maintainer
                       # Managing releases
                             * Releases, branches and tags, oh my!
                       # Using your HEAD
                       # Working with Update Status
                       # Step-by-Step
                             * section for tasks (new version of your  
module, new release, etc.)
                       # Troubleshooting release problems
                 + Abandoned Projects
                       # How to give a project up
                       # How to take over an existing project
     * What is CVS and how Drupal uses it
           o Introduction to CVS/RCS
           o CVS Usage Policy/Guidelines
           o CVS GUIs and clients
           o Drupal repositories
           o Drupal branches and tags
           o Quick reference sheet
           o CVS/Project FAQ

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.drupal.org/pipermail/documentation/attachments/20080320/fe63c4b2/attachment.htm