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NEXT BUGMASH May 15-16, 2010

BugMash

Have you ever wondered how you could get started contributing to the core Rails code? Have you been watching the growth of RailsBridge and wondering where you could fit in? Well, wonder no longer: we have an answer to both of those questions. Announcing:

The First Rails and RailsBridge BugMash

The idea is simple: RailsBridge has a lot of energy. Rails, being a volunteer effort, needs help to bring version 3.0 to release. With the help of some Rails Core team members, we're going to see what we can do to move Rails 3.0 towards a successful beta, encourage more people to get involved with the Rails source, and have some fun.

Some of the Bridgers will be organizing a face-to-face way for BugMash participants to come together (Teams), but there's no need to be there to be a part of it. We'll also have a room open on IRC, and people who are familiar with the Rails internals will be available to help point you in the right direction. We're going to do everything we can to make it easy to start contributing to Rails.

What can you do to help? Some ideas:

  • Fix a known issue
  • Report a bug
  • Comment on an issue
  • Verify a patch

We'll have a way for you to register your work up by the start of the BugMash. Anyone who contributes in any way to the success of Rails 3 will be entered in the Prize drawing.

Official BugMash hours

Rails contributors are located all over the world, so we're going to define an extended weekend for the BugMash. So we're going to run from Saturday noon in New Zealand (00:00:00 May 15 GMT) to Sunday midnight on the US West coast (07:00:00 May 16 GMT). That should give everyone who wants to be involved plenty of time to participate.

Resources

There are also some resources aimed at helping you fix Rails bugs, though that's not the focus of the January BugMash:

Teams

We're not doing team-based scoring, but we do have people getting together in various cities. If you're getting together a team for the next BugMash, please add it here:

  • (to be determined)

If you're interested in one of these, or want to organize your own in-person event, drop by the #railsbridge IRC channel to chat.

IRC support

We'll have experienced Rails developers and core team members available on IRC for as many hours during the BugMash as humanly possible. If you're having trouble getting started, want to brainstorm about a particular ticket, or can help other people out, please come by and join us. We'll be hanging out on the #railsbridge channel on Freenode IRC. Our IRCGuide can help you get connected.

We also have a bot who's helping us keep track of who's working on what. Details at BugMashBotUsage. (But we probably won't use the bot for the Rails 3 BugMash).

Scoring

1 point for each thing that you do to help Rails 3 along. In the case of any disputes, the decisions of the BugMash team are final.

For every point, you'll get 1 ticket in the lottery to distribute the prizes.

Past Events

Participants Testimonials

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