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Getting Involved
So you want to help? Great! You don't have to be a C++ guru and
you don't need to spend lots of time. A big portion of the help we
need is feedback and bug reports.
Did you think you had to be a developer to make a difference in the Mozilla
Project? Think again. Here are ways anyone can get involved with Mozilla.
- Report Bugs
-
Start by downloading a binary. Use it as your
everyday browser and report
bugs when you find them. Before submitting a bug report,
search Bugzilla to make
sure your bug has not already been reported. If it has, then feel free to
add any extra details you can. Read the
bug writing guidelines
before submitting a new bug.
- Quality Assurance
-
Mozilla QA has a page
dedicated to ways to get involved with helping. This does not involve
knowing how to code, although a little knowledge of HTML is helpful. This is a
good area for people wanting to get more familiar with Mozilla. Some of the
ways to get involved (from that page) include:
- Pre-screening Browser-General Bugs
-
The Browser-General component in Bugzilla receives hundreds of browser
bugs every month. All of these bugs must be
reviewed to determine
whether they are worthwhile and which component they belong in.
- Confirming the Unconfirmed
-
Bugzilla bugs filed by new bug filers start in the UNCONFIRMED state,
which means that someone has to verify that the problem is actually a bug.
This could be you.
- Join The BugAThon
-
Bugzilla receives many bugs that engineers could fix faster if they had
simplified test cases. Many bug reporters merely provide a URL, without
isolating the bug's root cause. As a result, engineers must spend
their time isolating these bugs, rather than actually fixing them. If
you would like to help ensure engineers are fixing DOM and layout bugs
rather than dissecting bug reports, join the BugAThon and get involved!
- Fix Bugs
-
Is there some bug that really bothers you? Instead of just reporting it,
feel free to fix it as well. To learn how the bug-fixing process works,
read the hacking
documents, particularly the life cycle
of a patch.
When you start working on a bug be sure to indicate this by making a note
of it in Bugzilla in the “additional comments” box.
This lets others know that someone is working on the problem and helps reduce
duplication of effort.
- Write Documentation
-
We need
documentation
for users, web developers, and developers working on Mozilla. If you write
your own code, document it. Much of the existing code isn't very well
documented. In the process of figuring things out, try and document your
discoveries.
- Contact Web Sites That Have Problems
-
Do your favorite web sites work properly in Mozilla or other Mozilla-based
browsers? If not then you can help Mozilla succeed by helping to convince
web sites and web developers to develop cross-browser, standards-based
content which supports Mozilla.
You can help with the Mozilla Tech
Evangelism project by filing Tech Evangelism bugs on sites which do not
work in Mozilla, by triaging existing Tech Evangelism bugs, and by complaining
to sites that they do not support your favorite browser!
If all else fails, as you read the news
groups, status updates, and projects
home pages, keep an eye out for people asking for help. If you notice people
moving bugs or features back to later milestones, you might try asking if they
need help with that item. If bugs in Bugzilla are marked more than a couple
milestones off, maybe the owner of the bug could use some help. Try doing a
Bugzilla search for bugs
set to a milestone or two greater than the current
one.
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