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I tried to respect their documented process and find a reviewer for my patch so the status of the issue can get one step closer to "closed". They specifically m

I tried to respect their documented process and find a reviewer for my patch so the status of the issue can get one step closer to "closed". They specifically mentioned IRC and this particular mailing list as ways to locate reviewers. After waiting a couple of hours for a response on IRC, I wrote to the mailing list.

dalke 14y ago
Then you started off with the wrong email. You said "I've got a fix and a test and now I need a reviewer to mark the ticket as RFC. Please take a look if you're familiar with this area of Django." That added nothing new, because anyone who would review it has already been informed. That's what the reply told you. They have no idea who you are, or what you know about the process, or even that you want to follow the process. You then followed up with "How else am I supposed to find someone to review my patch? I got no response on IRC." That does give the sense that you're exasperated. That doesn't help them understand that you want to work with them. Also, your first email has the wrong tone, in several ways. You wrote that you "need a reviewer to mark the ticket as RFC". That is a presumptive view, because it assumes that a reviewer will mark the ticket as RFC. The reviewer might say that it needs many changes, and pass it back to you for continued development. Second, the line "Please take a look if you're familiar with this area of Django." is not helpful to the person reading the email. How does someone know if they are familiar with that area without actually going to the bug? They have to take a look. Which means that anyone who might review it will have to take a look, no matter if they are familiar with it or not. My belief is that if you had asked a question about the process, rather than the patch, and explained how you were trying to work within the existing process, then you would have gotten a more useful answer. For example: "I've just contributed my first patch to Trac. Now I'm waiting for a reviewer. I asked for one on IRC but got no answer after several hours. The contribute FAQ suggests asking here as well. Can someone here review <url> for me?" That's gentler than the email you first sent. It would have probably gotten an answer like what the FAQ says: Remember, "it’s not personal. Django is entirely developed by volunteers (even the core devs), and sometimes folks just don’t have time." Instead of developing a patch, what about reviewing the patches that others have submitted? Do this enough times and someone will likely reciprocate.
- stefantalpalaru 14y ago
  You're probably right about not being gentle enough. The "area of Django" I was referring to had been mentioned in the email's subject, though. As you might have guessed, that was my first and last try to contribute to this particular open source project. I won't do it again. Maybe this attitude is unusual in the subset of Django users who at some point want to contribute something back to the community. Or maybe the core developers have the wrong approach to encouraging new members of the community and instead of making sure the process works they spend the time writing codes of conduct.
  - dalke 14y ago
    Fair enough (regarding the title). As I wrote, what you saw here is typical of most volunteer-based project. There's not enough people working on a project to cover all of the details, and those people tend to do the things that interest them. Reviewing others' patches is low on the list, unless it's something which involves them directly. It's likely that you'll get similar responses in other projects. As I wrote, there are ways around it. Mostly be putting a lot more effort into helping the project before you demand things from people. Again, I point out that a couple of my bug reports are 10 years old, and still getting infrequent attention. Another way to say this is that if you're the person who wants so much attention or quick feedback, then you're not the type of person who would do well in a volunteer-driven, distributed project. But there are other volunteers who are a better fit, and the Django team doesn't know how to specify which type they are looking for. In any case, the response email wasn't scolding.

dalke 14y ago

Then you started off with the wrong email. You said "I've got a fix and a test and now I need a reviewer to mark the ticket as RFC. Please take a look if you're familiar with this area of Django." That added nothing new, because anyone who would review it has already been informed. That's what the reply told you. They have no idea who you are, or what you know about the process, or even that you want to follow the process. You then followed up with "How else am I supposed to find someone to review my patch? I got no response on IRC." That does give the sense that you're exasperated. That doesn't help them understand that you want to work with them. Also, your first email has the wrong tone, in several ways. You wrote that you "need a reviewer to mark the ticket as RFC". That is a presumptive view, because it assumes that a reviewer will mark the ticket as RFC. The reviewer might say that it needs many changes, and pass it back to you for continued development. Second, the line "Please take a look if you're familiar with this area of Django." is not helpful to the person reading the email. How does someone know if they are familiar with that area without actually going to the bug? They have to take a look. Which means that anyone who might review it will have to take a look, no matter if they are familiar with it or not. My belief is that if you had asked a question about the process, rather than the patch, and explained how you were trying to work within the existing process, then you would have gotten a more useful answer. For example: "I've just contributed my first patch to Trac. Now I'm waiting for a reviewer. I asked for one on IRC but got no answer after several hours. The contribute FAQ suggests asking here as well. Can someone here review <url> for me?" That's gentler than the email you first sent. It would have probably gotten an answer like what the FAQ says: Remember, "it’s not personal. Django is entirely developed by volunteers (even the core devs), and sometimes folks just don’t have time." Instead of developing a patch, what about reviewing the patches that others have submitted? Do this enough times and someone will likely reciprocate.

stefantalpalaru 14y ago
You're probably right about not being gentle enough. The "area of Django" I was referring to had been mentioned in the email's subject, though. As you might have guessed, that was my first and last try to contribute to this particular open source project. I won't do it again. Maybe this attitude is unusual in the subset of Django users who at some point want to contribute something back to the community. Or maybe the core developers have the wrong approach to encouraging new members of the community and instead of making sure the process works they spend the time writing codes of conduct.
- dalke 14y ago
  Fair enough (regarding the title). As I wrote, what you saw here is typical of most volunteer-based project. There's not enough people working on a project to cover all of the details, and those people tend to do the things that interest them. Reviewing others' patches is low on the list, unless it's something which involves them directly. It's likely that you'll get similar responses in other projects. As I wrote, there are ways around it. Mostly be putting a lot more effort into helping the project before you demand things from people. Again, I point out that a couple of my bug reports are 10 years old, and still getting infrequent attention. Another way to say this is that if you're the person who wants so much attention or quick feedback, then you're not the type of person who would do well in a volunteer-driven, distributed project. But there are other volunteers who are a better fit, and the Django team doesn't know how to specify which type they are looking for. In any case, the response email wasn't scolding.