accompany each release with a document: entry points for help / input

[timmie]

[timmie]

In relation to issues #1369, #1355, #433, #1368, #1180, I suggest issue each with each release a list of items where other than core developers can come in and help out.

This shall be low hanging fruits which are independant of API changes that may orrur in such a quick development like its currently happening in pandas:

• such as doc improvements: doc: add plots to docstrings and reference to in what's new #1369, add methods to doc #1355
• third party code contributions: create a community supported set of typical converters for read_csv #1180
• usability enhancements: #1251

I think by provinding such smaller chunks it could be more attractive for non-fulltime coders to contribute and a better work share between core devs and wider community around.

[changhiskhan]

I think this is a good suggestion. Ideally we would like to have labels indicating where we'd like to get community involvement and then have the developer page dynamically update to include these issues.

However, this does involve a decent amount of work upfront for us to setup and then also more continued time to provide extra context and explanations in the tagged issues. We are very focused on pandas development right now and are stretched very thin so this isn't something we have time to do in a full-fledged way.

What I will do is add a "community" label for issues that would be great to have community involvement in and add a blurb on the developer page about those.

In cases where we haven't provided a lot of guidance, there are some common sense rules you can follow:

1. the farther a feature is from core pandas data structures and algorithms the more likely it will get quick integration
2. test cases are essential
3. documentation is more likely to be integrated quickly than code changes, and documentation on older API features are less likely to change.

[timmie]

So will you add this to:
http://pandas.pydata.org/developers.html

or is there a Sphinx RST source of that page that I could modify?

[changhiskhan]

I will add it to developers.html

[changhiskhan]

Added note and link in http://pandas.pydata.org/developers.html