Contributing to Rust — community building

Help newbies, spread the word, meet interesting people. Make Rust the shining example of open source development that we all want it to be.

Keep an eye on the #rust-beginners channel. This is where we direct new Rust programmers to ask for help, and it is vital when they do that they receive prompt, accurate, and courteous responses. Likewise, Stack Overflow, users.rust-lang.org, and /r/rust, are all forums where Rust programmers commonly look for assistance. If you want training on answering programmers’ questions read this guide.

If you are already experienced in some area of the project, please look out for potential E-easy bugs. When you see an easy issue on the bug tracker that you know how to fix, write up a description of the fix and tag it with E-easy. Note that what is obvious to you is not obvious to a new Rust contributor, and its important to describe the problem and the solution clearly. It is thus also helpful to triage E-easy bugs for poor descrptions and improve them.

Experienced developers who are patient and communicate clearly should consider mentoring new contributors. Tag easy issues with E-mentor and mention in a comment that you will mentor. Expect people to contact you about the issue, and attempt to respond promptly.

Maintaining entry-level tasks is good not only for The Rust Project itself but all projects. If your project has a consistent supply of entry-level tasks you might institute such a program yourself. Curating entry-level tasks is one of the most effective methods of bringing new programmers into the project. If you want training on mentoring new contributors read this guide.

Talk about what you are working on in the weekly “what’s everyone working on this week” threads on /r/rust and users.rust-lang.org, and indicate what you need help with. These are great starting points for collaboration.

Advocate Rust in your own local community. Rust user groups and events are a unique and exciting part of the Rust experience: there are so many, and they are everywhere! If you haven’t been yet, go and enjoy new experiences. If there is nothing Rusty going on near you then consider organizing something. You can poll for interest and announce events on /r/rust or users.rust-lang.org. Contact the community team to put events on the calendar, and thus be announced on This Week in Rust.

Remember as you are advocating Rust though to be considerate of others’ views — not everybody is going to be receptive to Rust, and that’s just fine.

Meet other Rust community builders in #rust-community.