Pain Points of Learning and Contributing in the Drupal Community

May 13, 2015

Kalpana GoelFrédéric G. Marand

Collaborative notes taking:http://bit.ly/contribution-notes

Nice to Meet You

Kalpana GoelDeveloper at Forum One

Drupal.org/IRC - kgoelTwitter - @kalpanagoel

Frédéric G. MarandDeveloper at OSInet

Drupal.org - fgmTwitter - @osinet

Pain Points of Learning and Contributing in Drupal Community

Pain Points to Core Contributing

Pain Points of Learning and Contributing in Drupal Community

● Finding right issue to work on

● Fear of not knowing much

● Trouble finding right mentor

Pain Points to Core Contributing

Pain Points of Learning and Contributing in Drupal Community

● Lack of code reviews

● Can’t RTBC your own patch

● Takes too much time to add beta evaluation

Barriers to Core Contributing

Pain Points of Learning and Contributing in Drupal Community

● Pressure to finish the major/critical issue

● Scared to comment if not sure

● Time and money

Subsystem Complexity

Pain Points of Learning and Contributing in Drupal Community

● API pages are mystifying● Doc pages are Misleading● Module handler ● Creating an entity

Quality of Documentation

Pain Points of Learning and Contributing in Drupal Community

What is continuous contribution?

Pain Points of Learning and Contributing in Drupal Community

● Working on Drupal a little often

Benefits of continuous contribution?

Pain Points of Learning and Contributing in Drupal Community

● Up to speed with core

● know Drupal core more broadly

● Are aware of trends in core

What is sporadic Contribution?

Pain Points of Learning and Contributing in Drupal Community

● Working on Drupal in depth, but not so often

● e.g. only in code sprints

Benefits of sporadic Contribution

Pain Points of Learning and Contributing in Drupal Community

● Unblock hard problems

● Avoid burnout

Downsides● Never close an issue

● Never be aware of events

Pain Points of Learning and Contributing in Drupal Community

Contributing Over Time● Started Drupal in 2010● Started contributing before DrupalCon

Portland 2013● Worked on issue during DevDays: 98

comments before RTBC, 114 to commit● Average time to get reviews for issues - 7

days

Pain Points of Learning and Contributing in Drupal Community

Contributing Over Time

● Started Drupal in 2005● Started contributing a month later● Open core issue first comment: RTBC,

second comment: Committed● Average time to get reviews for issues -

32 days

Pain Points of Learning and Contributing in Drupal Community

Contributing Over TimeLong issue release cycle means less motivation

How does this affect contribution ?

Pain Points of Learning and Contributing in Drupal Community

How to break the trend so that more than 20% new contributors have more than 5 commits ?

Pain Points of Learning and Contributing in Drupal Community

Credit: http://xjmdrupal.org/blog/contribution-influence-drupal-8

How do we soften the curve?

How can we encourage more contributors to work on major/critical issues?

Pain points of learning and contributing in the Drupal Community

http://bit.ly/node999

Feedback

Pain points of learning and contributing in the Drupal Community

Notes http://bit.ly/contribution-notes

THANK YOU!Kalpana GoelFrédéric G. Marand