User:SSethi (WMF)/Sandbox 1

If you are considering to become a mentor for the Google Code-in program next year, learn more below:

Before the contest starts

 * Read the Google Code-in manual to get an overview of your responsibilities
 * List yourself as a mentor on the MediaWiki Google Code-in page (coming soon!)
 * Register yourself as a mentor on the Google Code-in site using the instructions sent by org admins via email
 * Express your interest in mentoring a task, by commenting on it on Phabricator and adding a #Google-Code-in-2017 tag to it
 * Create tasks on the Google Code-in site using the instructions below in task requirements

During the contest

 * Create more tasks on the Google Code-in site when they are needed
 * Mentor students, answer their questions and review their work within 36 hours. If you need additional time, let org admins know to help you

After the contest ends

 * Encourage students to write wrap-up blog posts sharing their experience, stay involved in projects and the community

General instructions

 * Tasks can be of both coding and non-coding type (docs/training, outreach/research, QA, user interface)
 * A typical task should take about 2-3 hours for an experienced contributor and about 2-3 days for a beginner to complete
 * Mentor for any number of tasks at anytime during the contest
 * Reply and review student contributions within 36 hours
 * Students can also propose tasks themselves to potential mentors. Work already performed by students cannot retroactively become a Google Code-in task (contest rules: section 4.2).
 * Related to creating tasks on Phabricator & Google Code-in site:
 * It's recommended for a task on the Google Code-in site to be on Phabricator
 * Ensure the task you are planning to mentor for is tagged with a  #Google-Code-in-2016 tag on Phabricator
 * Paste the link to the task on the Google Code-in site in a comment in the Phabricator task
 * Drag the Phabricator task into the "Imported into GCI site" column on the workboard
 * Add a [READY] prefix to a task's title on the Google Code-in site to let org admins know that your task is available as it does not get immediately published

Task template
While creating tasks on the Google Code-in site, use the hints below to fill out the information:
 * Title Include project name. Begin the title with a verb (e.g. "Write a script that does …")
 * Description Cover the following information, to make it easier for a student to get started on a task:
 * Problem and expected solution
 * Link to the task’s code base
 * Link to corresponding Phabricator task
 * Useful resources
 * Skills required by students
 * Mentor's preferred mode of communication (e.g. Phabricator, IRC, wiki page, Google Code-in site itself)
 * Patch submission in Gerrit required
 * Time to Complete Enter number of days. Be generous! Remember, students might take more time, in the beginning, to complete tasks as they will be familiarizing themselves with the technology stack and rules of the contest.
 * Task Categorization Beginner Task (Yes/No)
 * Simple, and less technical tasks that help students onboard and learn how things work
 * Students can work on a maximum of two beginner tasks
 * Examples: Getting on IRC, making first wiki edits, setting up the development environment and providing a screenshot of it, triaging three bug reports, etc
 * Instance Count Set this as higher than 1 for a generic task. More than one student can complete it. For example: "Fix five template data issues from the list shown in this link."
 * Categories Choose one from below:
 * Code Tasks related to writing or refactoring code
 * Documentation/Training Tasks related to creating/editing documents and helping others learn more. No translation tasks allowed
 * Outreach/Research Tasks related to community management, outreach/marketing, or studying problems and recommending solutions
 * Quality Assurance Tasks related to testing and ensuring code is of high quality
 * User Interface Tasks related to visuals, design or workflows in applications
 * Tags Maximum 5 keywords. Add tags that make a task searchable (e.g. Python, wikitext, and screencast)
 * Mentors One or two (preferred). Let org admins know if you will not be available within a certain timeframe.

Process: Life of a Google Code-in task

 * 1) Students find a task relevant to their interests and skills and claim it. They can only work on one task at a time until the mentor has accepted their work
 * 2) Student works on the task, with guidance from mentors and other community members
 * 3) Student submit their work for review through the contest website
 * 4) Mentors evaluate the work. They either accept the submission or request for more work
 * 5) Student then incorporate feedback from mentors and re-submit
 * 6) Mentors approve the task
 * 7) Student finds next task, and repeat from step 2.

Ideas for tasks

 * List of "easy" tasks which could fit for Google Code-in
 * List of "easy" tasks per area
 * List of proposed or completed tasks in 2016