IronMan Community Member

I been meaning to post the following blog for a couple of weeks and just kept putting it off, so it is way over due.  The main reason for this blog is to recognize the the efforts Alex Shirley (aka: NukeAlex) has put into helping get the Gemini public project cleaned up and making sure all new issues are processed in a timely manner.  When he joined the team there were 1,100+ outstanding issues and this number is now down to  260.  Alex has personally validated 500+ issues and  for the past 3-4 weeks has been concentrating on making sure all new issues are validated quickly.  For the past 2 years I have been the only one validating Gemini issues and it is a very thankless job, so I just want Alex to know all his work is appreciated and make sure the rest of the community knows about his efforts.  I look forward to working a lot with Alex in 2007 to not only cleanup the Gemini public project, but also to improve the process for submitting issues, enhancements and new features.

My hat is off to Alex and all that he has done. Instead of just complaining about something he saw that needed improving, he decided to be part of the solution. He is a good example of how community members can become involved in the project without being on the core team.  I encourage everyone to take his example and do whatever is needed to help the DNN improve, processes imporvements, etc.  Below are some examples of  how this can be done.

1) If you use a module a lot and are not happy with how fast bugs are fixed or new features added, then get a hold of the project leader and offer to be on the project team for the module.

2) Documentation lacking:  Sits down and write the documentation you think is needed and then submit it to the core.

3) Need a localization file created for DNN that is not available:   Transalate the localzation files to the language you need and submit to core to be available on the localization pack download page.  Take ownership of this localization pack and make sure it is kept up to date.

4) When inputting issues in Gemini do the following.
   - Enter the steps to reproduce the error (helps us validate the issue quicker).
   - Enter what the fix is to the issue (helps the issue to be fixed quicker).     
   - If entering an enhancement / new feature give a few options on how to implement it.