Re: Git and Google Summer of Code 2012

[Jeff King <peff@peff.net>]

On Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 06:44:54PM +0100, Jakub Narebski wrote:

> > > Actually the discussion of GSoC project application ideas with mentoring
> > > organization[1] should take place in the open, on git mailing list,
> > > git@vger.kernel.org.  (You don't need to be subscribed to send email to
> > > it, and there is custom on this mailing list of Cc-ing all people
> > > participating in discussion; you can read git mailing list via other
> > > interfaces e.g. via GMane.)
> > 
> > The parenthesized part applies to general audience but not to GSoC
> > students, I would think. Isn't the participation in the mentoring
> > community mandatory for them?
> 
> Perhaps being subscribed to git mailing list, and participating in
> #git or #git-devel IRC channel (and perhaps also #gsoc channel) is
> mandatory for GSoC students (though I think if it is so it should
> be stated clearly in materials such as SoC-2012-Template application
> template)...
> 
> ...but is it required also for _prospective_ (would-be) students? 

I would hesitate to ever call anything _mandatory_. A student who is
aware of how the git community works, is up-to-date with recent
discussions on the proposed area of work, and who has interacted with
the developer community will have a much stronger application and be
more likely to succeed in their project.

Given that the mailing list is the center of the development community,
I would expect reading at least some of it to be part of the above
tasks. But whether they want to subscribe, read via nntp, read via list
archives on gmane, or whatever, is up to the student. And I certainly
wouldn't expect them to read every message; instead, they should read
parts that interest them and seem applicable to their proposed work.
Because there is a lot of traffic on the list, it often helps to cull
uninteresting bits by their subject, or whole threads after reading the
first message of a thread and deciding it's boring.

-Peff