Rob Church wrote:
On 07/01/07, GerardM gerard.meijssen@gmail.com wrote: [snip]
If this move is intended to bring more volunteer developers to MediaWiki I am afraid that it is just window dressing. It will not make much of a difference because people come and stay as they like. If you TRULY want more developers, having someone dedicated to coaching the people who are new to the MediaWiki code would make much more of a difference. Having someone coach people who are doing projects and stuff in Universities would really help.
Absolutely! New developers come in all very excited about the thing - they've submitted a few patches, we've generally used those to help mould them into shape, and we've got a feel for them - but they're still very "green" - I certainly was. It would make excellent sense if a more experienced developer was assigned to "mentor" newbies, and I don't mean that in the sense of being up their noses - I mean that in a sense of giving their changes a quick eyeball, and being available to answer the odd email about how something should be done.
Interestingly, given the stink being raised in certain on-wiki circles about IRC and off-wiki communication, it is evident from lurking on the appropriate channels that this is already being done spectacularly well by Brion and Rob, not to mention the other devs who are there from time to time.
I just wanted to make it absolutely clear that the "mentoring" process is already ongoing, if not necessarily officially or under that precise name, and seems to be working very well indeed.
HTH HAND