What TPF should do

[Greg McCarroll]

On 3 Apr 2006, at 18:22, Ian Malpass wrote:
> * Threads like this remind me that you don't have to be a star  
> programmer to be a useful volunteer, but I still tend to think "oh,  
> I'm not a good enough Perl programmer to be useful".

I'm not connected with the TPF, but I'd assume that the last thing
they need is Perl programmers. It stands to reason that a programming
language orientated organization will have programmers by the
bucket load - what they won't have is people with marketing, legal,
financial, etc. skills[1].

I seem to remember in conversations with Kevin Lenzo, Kurt deMaagd's
name constantly coming up - he was YAS' finance guy and always seemed
to be a lynchpin in many of YAS' activities.

So even if you are not a 'good enough' Perl programmer, although I
doubt that, you probably have other skills that can be used to better
Perl in the big bad world, and they don't even have to be as distinct
as legal or financial skills.

Just look at the work the NMS guy's are doing - to help with that  
project
I'd suggest the major skill you need is enough patience to suggest that
new users read the webserver logs one more time and also check that  
permissions
are right and I'm sure DC/JS will disagree if I'm totally off mark here.
And just to be clear here, I'm not being flippant, it will really help
some folks if you can just do something as simple as that.

Greg

[1] Conversely it's why I like meeting people from other professions,
     as I inevitably find ways I can apply my computing knowledge to
     their problems. It's also one of the reason's I'm currently  
studying
     law.