{"database": "pelican", "table": "content", "rows": [["ryan", "musings", "A few weeks ago I completed my second session as a\n[Djangonaut.Space](https://djangonaut.space/)\n[Navigator](https://github.com/djangonaut-\nspace/program/blob/main/navigators.md). The Djangonaut.Space program is an\nopportunity for people to be introduced to contributing to Django and Django\nadjacent projects.\n\nIn this most recent session I was a Navigator for Team Mars with a fantastic\nCaptain [Tobe](https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmanuel-katchy). Our Djangonauts\nwere [Andy](https://softwarecrafts.uk/),\n[Maryam](https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryam-yusuf/), and\n[Rosana](https://rosanarufer.blogspot.com/).\n\nAmong the 3 of them they took on 7 tickets, pushed 7 PRs and closed 5 tickets.\n\nAs part of the program we would meet weekly to talk about any blockers and try\nand work through them. These meetings also provided a platform to encourage\none another.\n\nOne week we spoke about being a professional software developer working with\nDjango which was a great conversation.\n\nI really like this program for what it offers both the Djangonauts, and the\nmentors. I learned so much as part of this program.\n\nAs we were coordinating our first meeting I realized that the rest of my team\nwere in time zones that were 7 - 8 hours ahead of mine! I was a bit worried\ninitially that we'd have a hard time finding a common time to meet, but we\nsettled on Wednesdays at noon and this turned out to be pretty perfect for all\nof us.\n\nEach of our team meetings was similar to a [standup](https://www.agile-\nacademy.com/en/scrum-master/daily-standup/) where we'd talk about what work\nhad been done the previous week, and any struggles that we were having. The\ndjangonauts on team Mars were absolute Rock Stars. They picked up some pretty\ngnarly 1 issues and worked them to completion each time.\n\nWorking on a project like Django can be daunting and scary and time consuming.\nHowever, the amount that you can learn from working on a large project and\ncode base like this is immeasurable.\n\nWorking to form a consensus on an issue or idea, whether it's code or\ndocumentation, can be challenging! But as Maryam said in [her blog\npost](https://maryam.hashnode.dev/contributing-to-django-with-djangonaut-\nspace) about her experience with picking up a documentation ticket\n\n> To start safely, I picked a documentation change ticket just to get myself\n> familiar with the process. One of my tickets involved updating some wordings\n> in the documentation to make it easier for people to differentiate when a\n> pull request needed a Trac ticket or not. Initially, I thought this would be\n> a simple wording change. However, I soon realised that making changes to\n> Django documentation itself requires a lot of thought and consideration.\n>\n> This experience reminded me of my early days as a Django user. I loved\n> Django for its documentation - detailed, thoughtful, well-organised, and\n> easy to follow. Now, working on documentation changes as a contributor has\n> shown me how Django achieves such clarity. Significant thought and effort go\n> into making it clear and readable, minimising confusion and maximising\n> understanding for readers.\n>\n> If you don't know this going in then you can be disappointed or\n> disillusioned with how long something might take to be accepted, or\n> whatever, but a program like Djangonaut Space does, I think, help to ease\n> newcomers into contributing and setting realistic expectations and, in\n> general, enjoying the process.\n\nOne thing I tried to really emphasize with my team was that it won't be easy,\nand it will take some time, but that the effort will pay off with a ticket\nthat has been closed ... and in the worst case you've helped to move it\nforward.\n\nAnother point I tried to keep front and center was the idea that this is a\nvolunteer role and that if you're not having fun it's OK to take a step back.\nI think we need to hear that more and more, especially given the stress that\nmany developers can be under for their $dayJobs.\n\nI hope that this advice helped them in navigating the tickets that they\nworked. I also hope it helped to put into perspective what they were doing\nfrom a time commitment perspective.\n\nOne thing that I really love about the Django community in general, and the\nDjangonaut.Space community in particular, is how welcoming they are. The\ncommunity strives to welcome you to be part of it.\n\nBUT even with the welcoming nature, it can still be very hard to pick that\nfirst ticket, submit that first PR, and receive that first bit of feedback.\n\nA program like Djangonaut.Space really helps to get people more comfortable\nwith the process of picking and working on a ticket. It also helps to develop\nlong term contributors to the project ... which is amazing.\n\nI'm looking forward to the next time I'll be able to participate and would\nencourage anyone to get involved, either as a participant, or as a mentor.\n\n  1. Tickets [13376](https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/13376), [35464](https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/35464) and [12203](https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/12203) \u21a9\ufe0e\n\n", "2024-08-29", "reflections-on-djangonaut-space-session-2", "A few weeks ago I completed my second session as a\n[Djangonaut.Space](https://djangonaut.space/)\n[Navigator](https://github.com/djangonaut-\nspace/program/blob/main/navigators.md). The Djangonaut.Space program is an\nopportunity for people to be introduced to contributing to Django and Django\nadjacent projects.\n\nIn this most recent session I was a Navigator for Team Mars with a fantastic\nCaptain \u2026\n\n", "Reflections on Djangonaut Space Session 2", "https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/08/29/reflections-on-djangonaut-space-session-2/"]], "columns": ["author", "category", "content", "published_date", "slug", "summary", "title", "url"], "primary_keys": ["slug"], "primary_key_values": ["reflections-on-djangonaut-space-session-2"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0874392464756966}