New model for the mentoring program

[Nathan Handler]

On Thu, Jul 17, 2008 at 4:06 PM, Hanno Stock <hanno.stock at gmx.net> wrote:
> I just mentioned it, because I thought that might need further
> discussion, depending on how strictly the regular attendance is enforced.
> Generally I think it is a good idea, to expect attendance to MOTU
> school. However people willing to contribute despite having a day job
> and/or other obligations should not be excepted from Mentoring.
> I'd suggest some other way of showing the willingness to enhance one's
> skills like doing a test or submitting some kind of "homework", in the
> case attendance to school was not possible.
>

I definitely agree that it is not reasonable to expect new
contributors to be able to attend the MOTU school sessions. There have
been many MOTU school sessions that I have wanted to attend in the
past. However, for the most part, they either occurred while I was
sleeping, or when I had other commitments. As a result, I was usually
unable to attend. To make up for this, I read the IRC log of the
lesson once it got added to the wiki. If we decide to test the user on
the material that was taught at the MOTU school session, I do not
think we should make the test too difficult. This is due to the fact
that if they were not able to attend the session, they also were not
able to ask questions about the session. I think the test should only
ask questions that can be easily answered by reading the IRC log. This
will show that the new contributor has taken the time to read through
the log, and that they have a basic understanding of the topic.

Nathan Handler