Drupal has one of the largest open source communities in the world, with Drupal 8 crediting over 3,000 individual contributors. With this many people involved Drupal can do anything, right? Well, maybe this number isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Let's discuss challenges we face having such a large community. Are the processes around the Drupal project equipped to handle such a large number of contributors? Do we still experience growing pains? What problems are hidden by that large number, like the limited number high-end contributors and burnout. Does it even make sense to strive for bigger numbers in all aspects of the community?

Let's also discuss ways we might shift our focus, like supporting smaller, more productive events, one-on-one mentoring programs to help nurture existing contributors, and other ways to make sure we get the most out of our limited volunteer hours and efforts.

The long tail of Drupal 8.0 contribution

- Over 3,000 contributors for D8, 954 for D7.
- Both start to flatten around 200th contributor.
- Burnout, turnover.
- 10 of the top 25 people are the same.
- Of the remaining 15, 8 are in the the top 100 and 12 in the top 200.
- 70% have 1-2 credits, 60% for D7

- It would be more important to enlarge the team of top developers who can solve the really hard problems than to add 1,000 more contributors.
- Litte sprints with 5-10 people are more effective than huge ones with 500 people.
- Local events and local mentorship is more beneficiant and more effective.

Also talking xjm Drupal 8 release manager.

Also talking Chris. If the only purpose of the mentoring program is to find Unicorns then there might be better ways as well.

Cargo Cult

contributor tasks

### Frustrations

There are a lot of people who trid contributing once but went away because of the frustration.

1. 34% People were frustrated with the complex issue queue process.
2. 32% Bugs and patches don't get reviewed and fixed fast enough.
3. The size of the Drupal code-base is overwhelming and too complex to figure it out.