U Zusammenarbeit mit dem Core-Team auf drupal.org

(Original von "webchick" Angela Byron)

Eine Menge Leute haben eine Menge Vorschläge für die Verbesserung der Drupal community. Das ist super, und es zeigt ihr Engagement gegenüber Drupal und in dessen Weiterkommen.

Leider ist es trotzdem unrealistisch, dass jeder Vorschlag auch umgesetzt wird. Drupal wird von Freiwilligen betrieben, und daher übertrifft die Menge der Aufgaben bei weitem die Stärke der Manpower, und jeder muss seine Kräfte einteilen. Veränderung braucht darüberhinaus Zeit; sogar technisch einfach umsetzbare Dinge (wie ein Modul auf drupal.org zu aktivieren) will gut überlegt sein. Ist es wirklich für alle sinnvoll? Gibt es auch Nachteile? Sollte die Zeit nicht lieber in was anderes gesteckt werden, das langfristig mehr bringt?

Viel effektiver als ständig nur andere zu bitten ist es daher, einfach selber loszulegen. "Sich das Problem zueigen machen" -- Wenn dir etwas nicht gefällt, schau, was du für dein Land tun kannst ;). Drupals Community ist in dieser Hinsicht unglaublich offen: man kann an Diskussionen über Coreentwicklung teilnehmen, am Handbuch arbeiten (oder Fehler darin korrigieren) Patches einschicken usw.

Der Erfolg deiner Ideen hängt hauptsächlich von euch selber ab. Obwohl es keine Garantie gibt, dass sie berücksichtigt wird, möchte ich euch einen kleinen Leitfaden an die Hand geben, denen unausgesprochenerweise erfahrenere Ninjas meist folgen:

*************** Ich lass hier mal den englischen Text drinne bis er übersetzt wird, besser als nix! *****************

1. Untersuche

Frage Dich: "Warum ist das so?" - mache keine Annahmen. Vielleicht gibt es einen guten Grund. Finde heraus wer am Entscheidungsprozess für diese Implementierung beteiligt war. Sprich mit diesen Menschen, um herauszufinden, welche Aufgabenstellungen damit gelöst werden sollten, erläutere Deine Anforderungen und vielleicht kommt Ihr zu einer neuen Lösung, die die alten und die neuen Anforderungen erfüllt.

2. Forsche

Verschaffe Dir ein Bild darüber, welche anderen Möglichkeiten bestehen mit denen, Du Deine Anforderungen erfüllen kannst. Finde heraus, wie andere Leute das gleiche Problem lösen. Sprich mit anderen Menschen aus der Gemeinschaft, um zu erfahren, wie sie zu Deiner Idee stehen und welche Ansätze sie verfolgen würden.

3. Propose

In as much detail as possible, outline the steps to fix the problem. Do a mock-up of what you think the solution would look like, and describe how it would work. Anyone can propose an idea. "I think Drupal should do this." Great! But an idea that has been researched, that is backed up with a plan, and which is able to quantify its purpose and effectiveness is far more likely to get attention and to later be implemented.

4. Refine

Get feedback from the community, as this can often improve upon your original idea. Take criticisms and either address them or incorporate them into your plan.

5a. Be patient

Depending on how well you've written your proposal, you might catch the eye of a developer who says, "Yes! I know exactly what you mean, and I want that very thing too!" You might catch the eye of someone with money who says, "Yes! I will pony up $500 to put into a pool for that feature!" which will in turn attract a developer.

However, bear in mind that change in the Drupal community is evolutionary rather then sudden and immediate. Change occurs over weeks and months rather then days and hours. Discussion tends to occur in a time lagged fashion on the forums and through email over time in collaboration. It's not just one person that makes the decision, it's generally a group consensus. Keep in mind that while your proposal makes sense to you, it may not make sense to a majority of others at first.

5b. Be willing to DIY

On the other hand, you might receive luke-warm acceptance, or you might get a lack of response because people don't fully understand your idea and how it would work. Sometimes the best matter is to take things into your own hands, and Drupal.org gives you literally dozens of opportunities to do so. You can:

• Submit a patch via the projects system to improve modules
• Engage in discussion with developers via the mailing lists to improve infrastructure
• Submit documentation with the handbook system to improve documentation
• Put forward money to hire a developer who would otherwise be working on something else to address your issue.

....and on and on and on.

By contrast, here are some things that will NOT help enact change:

Accusations

Some people take the approach of talking in a very accusatory manner toward developers, implying that they are lazy, selfish, uncaring, and worse. Nothing will make people less sympathetic to your cause than taking this kind of attitude toward them.

Demands

No one from this community is being paid by "Drupal" to do work, so they tend to go after issues that interest them, or issues that they're being paid by their employers to address, and so on. That may mean that no one has the interest or the time to fix your specific issue. Either accept that, or take steps to fix the issue yourself, as outlined above. Demanding that it be done only makes people less willing to help.

Impatience

Rome wasn't built in a day, neither was Drupal, and neither will be your brand new concept. Things take time in order to be properly thought-out, planned, and implemented. Accept this, do not be frustrated by it. If every idea was thrown in willy-nilly, we would not have the stability of a system which we all know and love.

Does this sound like a lot of work? You're right, it is. While none of these steps need take a ridiculous amount of time and preparation individually (an "inquiry" could be a 5 minute conversation on IRC, and a "proposal" could just be a forum post), it requires free time, energy, patience, commitment, and skill to see changes through. And even after all of this work, sometimes ideas *still* aren't implemented for various reasons (read more on the decision-making process at http://drupal.org/node/10261). So try to realize that it is really pretty unreasonable to expect other people both to have all of these qualities, AND to be willing to drop everything and work on your specific issue, all at no cost to you. Have some compassion for the fine folks running and participating in the Drupal community, and take responsibility to do what you can in order to make it easier for your ideas to see the light of day.

Welcome to the community!