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FAQ: Contributing code
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.. _new-contributors-faq:

How can I get started contributing code to Django?
==================================================

Thanks for asking! We've written an entire document devoted to this question.
It's titled :doc:`Contributing to Django </internals/contributing/index>`.

I submitted a bug fix several weeks ago. Why are you ignoring my contribution?
==============================================================================

Don't worry: We're not ignoring you!

It's important to understand there is a difference between "a ticket is being
ignored" and "a ticket has not been attended to yet." Django's ticket system
contains hundreds of open tickets, of various degrees of impact on end-user
functionality, and Django's developers have to review and prioritize.

On top of that: the people who work on Django are all volunteers. As a result,
the amount of time that we have to work on the framework is limited and will
vary from week to week depending on our spare time. If we're busy, we may not
be able to spend as much time on Django as we might want.

The best way to make sure tickets do not get hung up on the way to checkin is
to make it dead easy, even for someone who may not be intimately familiar with
that area of the code, to understand the problem and verify the fix:

* Are there clear instructions on how to reproduce the bug? If this
  touches a dependency (such as Pillow), a contrib module, or a specific
  database, are those instructions clear enough even for someone not
  familiar with it?

* If there are several branches linked to the ticket, is it clear what each one
  does, which ones can be ignored and which matter?

* Does the change include a unit test? If not, is there a very clear
  explanation why not? A test expresses succinctly what the problem is,
  and shows that the branch actually fixes it.

If your contribution is not suitable for inclusion in Django, we won't ignore
it -- we'll close the ticket. So if your ticket is still open, it doesn't mean
we're ignoring you; it just means we haven't had time to look at it yet.

When and how might I remind the team of a change I care about?
==============================================================

A polite, well-timed message in the forum/branch is one way to get attention.
To determine the right time, you need to keep an eye on the schedule. If you
post your message right before a release deadline, you're not likely to get the
sort of attention you require.

Gentle IRC reminders can also work -- again, strategically timed if possible.
During a bug sprint would be a very good time, for example.

Another way to get traction is to pull several related tickets together. When
someone sits down to review a bug in an area they haven't touched for
a while, it can take a few minutes to remember all the fine details of how
that area of code works. If you collect several minor bug fixes together into
a similarly themed group, you make an attractive target, as the cost of coming
up to speed on an area of code can be spread over multiple tickets.

Please refrain from emailing anyone personally or repeatedly raising the same
issue over and over again. This sort of behavior will not gain you any
additional attention -- certainly not the attention that you need in order to
get your issue addressed.

But I've reminded you several times and you keep ignoring my contribution!
==========================================================================

Seriously - we're not ignoring you. If your contribution is not suitable for
inclusion in Django, we will close the ticket. For all the other tickets, we
need to prioritize our efforts, which means that some tickets will be
addressed before others.

One of the criteria that is used to prioritize bug fixes is the number of
people that will likely be affected by a given bug. Bugs that have the
potential to affect many people will generally get priority over those that
are edge cases.

Another reason that a bug might be ignored for a while is if the bug is a
symptom of a larger problem. While we can spend time writing, testing and
applying lots of little changes, sometimes the right solution is to rebuild. If
a rebuild or refactor of a particular component has been proposed or is
underway, you may find that bugs affecting that component will not get as much
attention. Again, this is a matter of prioritizing scarce resources. By
concentrating on the rebuild, we can close all the little bugs at once, and
hopefully prevent other little bugs from appearing in the future.

Whatever the reason, please keep in mind that while you may hit a particular
bug regularly, it doesn't necessarily follow that every single Django user
will hit the same bug. Different users use Django in different ways, stressing
different parts of the code under different conditions. When we evaluate the
relative priorities, we are generally trying to consider the needs of the
entire community, instead of prioritizing the impact on one particular user.
This doesn't mean that we think your problem is unimportant -- just that in the
limited time we have available, we will always err on the side of making 10
people happy rather than making a single person happy.

I'm sure my ticket is absolutely 100% perfect, can I mark it as "Ready For Checkin" myself?
===========================================================================================

Sorry, no. It's always better to get another set of eyes on a ticket. If
you're having trouble getting that second set of eyes, see questions above.
