[documentation] Summary from March 20 IRC meeting

[Steven Peck]

I like the outline and see this as the replacement for drupal.org/about
The stuff that doesn't fit can go elsewhere.

Weekend evenings (PST) I tend to be raiding with my guild in World of
Warcraft.  As I have run IRC on a separate system I can participate to
a degree.   As my wife works various unpredictable week day evenings
my attention depends on my kids occupying themselves :)  I do tend to
be home around 6ish pm PST

Steven

On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 4:07 PM, Addison Berry <drupal at rocktreesky.com> wrote:
> 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
>
>
> --
>  Pending work: http://drupal.org/project/issues/documentation/
>  List archives: http://lists.drupal.org/pipermail/documentation/
>