From: James Britt <james.britt@...>
Date: 2007-02-07T00:45:12+09:00
Subject: Re: Community involvement

Lyle Johnson wrote:
> On 2/6/07, Tech Guy <technodolt@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> What I want to know is: how do I become part of this core community?  
>> Right
>> now I feel like I'm sitting on the outside, watching all this amazing
>> development going on, and I have no idea how to get involved myself.  I'd
>> like to become part of a project and lend my time and as-yet meager
>> abilities back to the community that's helped me out so much, but I don't
>> have any idea where to start at.  Should I try to become involved in a
>> rubyforge project?  Should I just hunt down some random project's Trac 
>> and
>> start making fixes and submitting them?
> 
> I wouldn't say you should hunt down some "random" project to
> contribute to, but yeah, if there's a particular Ruby-related project
> that really interests you, ask how you can help. If you're a good
> writer, ask if you can help write some documentation for the project;
> I can almost guarantee with 100% accuracy that the answer to that
> question will be "Yes". When you discover a bug, or a potential bug,
> in a library, don't just send a terse message to the mailing list
> saying "It's broken" -- submit a *good* bug report that tells how to
> reproduce the problem, providing sample code whenever possible. (Even
> better, submit a patch that fixes the problem).
> 
> As the Ruby community has grown over the last year or so, there has
> been a large influx of people who are glad to take but not especially
> interested in giving back. It's good to hear from someone like you who
> doesn't fall into that group.
> 

Another, relatively simple simple, way is to try to keep an eye on 
ruby-talk and answer questions.

If we can maintain the spirit of "returning the favor", we'll do well 
and keep the community healthy.


-- 
James Britt

"Every object obscures another object."
    - Luis Bunuel