"Getting involved" on dlang.org?

[Chris via Digitalmars-d]

On Wednesday, 2 December 2015 at 21:46:39 UTC, Andrei 
Alexandrescu wrote:
>
> There is awareness. Good documentation is something we know we 
> need and is an ideal to live into.
>
> Problem is prioritizing. I must be spending cumulatively a 
> couple of hours everyday just deciding what to work on next. 
> Forty-six emails are waiting in my Inbox, earliest from 
> September; most likely their senders either have long forgotten 
> about them, or are wondering about my manners. But each is 
> nontrivial. Some are one mini-project each, and some are major 
> projects in themselves.
>
> There are occasional mini-fires on the forum, and literally I 
> could fill every day with work suggested on the forum. I'm 
> trying to delegate as best I can. As is widely known around 
> here, that works only sometimes, and sadly not always things 
> are done the way I'd wish are.
>
> At the same time my mind is burning at both ends with work on 
> the containers. Which are going to be awesome. There's so much 
> going on, I find myself scheming and running calculations first 
> time I open eyes in the morning (actually even before :o)) and 
> last time before I fall asleep.
>
> In this context, it's very difficult for me to think, "Sure, 
> the best work of my life can wait. Now let me sit down and 
> write a good tutorial."
>
> I thought dedicating my time to D will make things much easier 
> - but in fact the added focus and productivity only piles more 
> things on the plate!
>
>
> Andrei

This goes without saying. Nobody in the community expects you or 
Walter to write a tutorial how to contribute to D. The points 
made here refer to the fact that every so often you post a thread 
asking people to contribute and mention the documentation among 
other things. However, it's not really easy to get involved, 
because information is hidden - "Getting involved" is not even on 
the front page - and while there are steps that describe how to 
pull and push with git, there are some steps in between that are 
not 100% clear due to git not being the friendliest tool to work 
with, and github adds yet another layer of complexity. What needs 
to be added are tips & tricks along with typical pitfalls and 
common mistakes (cf. bachmeier's post).

Many people have mentioned that they _would_ contribute, if it 
didn't take them hours of trial and error to get things working 
(even long standing contributors have said that it can be quite 
nasty at times). I think the lack of action on the side of the 
community can be attributed in parts to the relatively high entry 
threshold for even trivial changes.

On a lighter note, I know how it feels when you think about a 
project when you go to bed, and again before you even open your 
eyes in the morning. I find that it helps _not_ to think about 
these things too hard when you're "off" (whatever that means in 
your case). Personally, I have better ideas, when I detach myself 
from a project, do something else and come back with a fresh 
head. But everyone is different. I don't know what works for you.