Playing second fiddle | Computerminds

there were quite a few people that wanted to get involved but just didn't know where to do so, they didn't know where the community was focused, they didn't have any specific areas that they wanted to address themselves and just didn't know where to begin. There were also a number of people that would like to help out with core development, but not as the primary creator of a patch/feature. These people want to write a test, write some documentation or review a patch to move an issue on from its current state. I am one of these people.

These people would basically play 'second fiddle' to the primary contributor within the issue, but they would provide valuable assistance in getting the issue committed into Drupal core. Arguably there aren't many of these people, but I reckon that a lot of the 'long tail of contributors' that Dries often talks about would be willing to become them. I think that a lot of people just don't know where to start, and don't feel involved enough to contribute.

So, I'd like to propose formalising the 'second fiddle' group of people, we'd accept proposals to help out with issues that someone is struggling with, and providing that it met with certain criteria, then it would be added to a categorised list of issues that need a 'second fiddle'. Someone in the group would be able to look at the list of issues needing help and find something that met their skill level and interest. They would then help move that issue toward completion.