On Thursday, 9 February 2017 at 16:48:16 UTC, Joseph Rushton
Wakeling wrote:
There's clearly in part a scaling problem here (in terms of how
many people are available in general, and in terms of how many
people have expertise on particular parts of the library) but
it also feels like a few simple things (like making sure every
PR author is given a reliable contact or two who they can feel
entitled to chase up) could make a big difference.
Regarding the scaling problem - Perhaps the bug system could be
used to help engage a wider community of reviewers. Specifically,
update the bugzilla ticket early in the PR lifecycle as an
alerting mechanism.
This idea comes from my experiences so far. I've found any number
of bugs and enhancements in the bug system that directly interact
with things I'm implementing. I typically add myself to CC list
so I hear about changes. In many of these cases I'd be willing to
help with reviewing. However, when a PR associated with the issue
is created, the ticket itself is normally not updated until after
the review is finished and the PR closed, to late to help out.
Of course, someone like myself, a part-timer to the community at
best, should not be a primary reviewer. However, for specific
issues, it's often the case that I've studied the area of code
involved. If there is a wider set of people in a similar
situation perhaps this might help engage a wider set of people.
--Jon
