[pydotorg-www] pydotorg patches (Was: Fwd: wiki.python.org)

[anatoly techtonik]

On Sat, Oct 29, 2011 at 5:45 PM, Brian Curtin <brian.curtin at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 29, 2011 at 05:13, anatoly techtonik <techtonik at gmail.com> wrote:
>> FWIW, we are all developers and it's strange that people send reports
>> instead of patches. Something is wrong here. I suspect it is
>> insufficient exposure of source code running the site. There is a
>> Code-In coming - it might be a good idea to suggest improvements in
>> this area for the challenge.
>
> Not everyone has the time or interest to submit patches. I *know* you
> know this, as we've interacted on mailing lists and the bug tracker
> for a while now.

Merely repeating the fact won't help it. The root cause is not 'not
everyone has time', but 'not everyone has _that much_ time'. This is
how that time is spent:

1. Discover the source code for the site
2. Discover the thing that is wrong
3. Find a way how to fix the thing
4. Submit the patch

I would like to propose (to PSF, probably) - the following study.
Fetch people running outside in a corridor and ask them to change
something on the website. Then measure the time they spent trying to
figure out how to do this without asking questions. I guess more than
half of them will give up at point 1.

> However a person wants to notify us of an issue is better than not
> notifying us at all.

That's true. I wonder if the percentage of those who do this is below
0.1%, because some issues were reported only by subscribers of this
list and even me - who doesn't visit Python website very often? =)

Anyway, if there are any people interested in helping with an editor
for static files, I can prepare a more detailed Roadmap/Outline that
can be useful for Code-In or Jesse's sprints.
http://code.google.com/p/pydotorg/issues/detail?id=6 But I need
somebody to ping me periodically, or I lose the motivation.
--
anatoly t.