Re: [gentoo-dev] Is there any way I can help with pull requests?

[Rich Freeman <rich0@gentoo.org>]

On Sat, Oct 13, 2018 at 8:59 AM James Le Cuirot <chewi@gentoo.org> wrote:
>
> On Sat, 13 Oct 2018 13:28:02 +0200
> Ralph Seichter <gentoo@seichter.de> wrote:
>
> > Is there any way I could help the Gentoo team? Any vacancies that need
> > to be filled, or work that needs to be done?
>
> Following what I said above, we need more actual bona fide developers
> who have done the quizzes, understand the issues, can most important
> can take responsibility for their own contributions.
>
> There is the proxy maintainers project, where we can accept
> contributions with a little less scrutiny, but I personally feel that
> these contributors really should just become developers. It doesn't
> matter if you're only interested in one or two packages, any help is
> very welcome.
>

I have to imagine that while waiting to become a dev (or not), it
would still be useful if contributors would like to skim pull requests
and find ways to contribute to them.

If a dev has pointed out an issue with a pull request, consider
offering a patch to fix the issue.

If a pull request hasn't been looked at, consider looking at it and
offering patches to resolve any issues you see.

Sure, ultimately a dev still has to review/commit, but I imagine any
help with triage will just make their life easier, which means they'll
be able to get more commits into the actual tree.

And of course all the skills you would use to clean up pull requests
are for the most part the same ones you'll need to become a dev.
Also, reading a bunch of dev comments about quality issues with pull
requests will make you aware of the kinds of QA issues people
routinely run into, and you'll be less likely to create the same
problems.

In my experience the best way to get accepted as a committer in just
about any kind of FOSS project is to basically do just this.  Sooner
or later you'll be noticed and short-listed.  You'll also rub
shoulders with people who are likely to become mentors, and since
recruiter availability is limited they're going to be bound to focus
on applicants who are active already.

-- 
Rich