How to be a successful contributor

[Jeroen van Meeuwen]

Mike McGrath wrote:
> With the help of some others I've put this document together:
> 
> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_be_a_Successful_Contributor
> 
> I intend on having it be required reading for new members of the
> Infrastructure team as part of our GettingStarted page.  I thought I'd
> mention it here in case others would like to make it part of their sign up
> process.
> 
> Questions / comments welcome.
> 

Reading this page for the first time...

It looks like a better title would be:
 
  "How to *become* a successful contributor"

Further, the page isn't written very well; Who thinks it's suitable to say to 
a new, potential contributor:

  "It is your job to ..."

  "This step is both incredibly difficult and important."

  "The single biggest mistake new contributors make"

It just sounds way too negative, and I'm thinking for a prominent page to be 
put in front of many new, potentially very valuable contributors, it should be 
motivating, a brochure to close the sale.

So, in effect, where we say "incredibly difficult to find a mentor", what we 
should be asking ourselves is "why is it difficult to find a mentor and more 
importantly, what can we do about it?". A solution as simple as a wiki page 
listing mentors and their location (physical proximity helps) might just solve 
that problem.

Just my $0.02

-- Jeroen