Universe Contributors applications

[James Westby]

Hi all,

Thanks for the thoughtful comments on my observation. I'm not
sure it's an actual problem, but I thought it would be interesting
to discuss it.

I have a few suggestions, I know this isn't the correct forum to
discuss policy changes and the like, but I would just like
to mention them and see if they are completely broken.

Firstly, could sponsors be encouraged to drop a note on to
the bugs that that sponsor fixes from? This would at least make
it much easier to know who has sponsored you. It obviously wouldn't
make sense everywhere, and it only really needs to change if there
was no comment required on the patch.

Secondly, could sponsors be encouraged to look at the names
on sponsor requests, and prioritise a few names? I think
this is probably a bad idea, but it would be a way to increase
the chances that there are people with a good overview of someone's
work.

Thirdly, should applications be more encouraged? Leaving it to
the contributor to decide when they think they are ready is
a good thing, but there are some people who think they might be,
but confirmation of that and offers of advocation would encourage
them. It could be just encouraging people to drop a message to
a new contributor saying that they would be willing to advocate
them if they wished.

As I said, these are just strawmen, burn them at your will. I don't
think any of these ideas should come anywhere near to being
compulsory, but a few tweaks might help. We have an application
process that puts a lot of weight on personal relationships, and
a sponsor process that can be very anonymous, so I think there
may be some friction to overcome.

Having said all of this, it would be very hard to reach the level
of contribution required to apply without having worked enough
with anyone else in the community for them to advocate you, so
it's not a major issue. Encouraging newcomers to join the community
and build relationships with people is certainly a good thing
anyway.

Thanks,

James