I already replaced a good bunch of non-working links on [[mw:Outreach programs/Possible mentors]] but the page is still hopelessly outdated.
But we link to it from various outreach pages.
I consider this a problem.
Let's discuss how to proceed.
Random thoughts:
- Must clarify the page scope. It says "potential mentors, just for reference" (what reference?) and "if former mentors are missing, just add them". So if this is a historical hall of fame for former mentors, then it should not be called "Possible mentors", really.
- Check pages on https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:WhatLinksHere/Outreach_programs/Possible_mentors why we link to this page. (Do we only tell students and new devs to get lost on the page, or do we also somewhere tell mentors to add themselves?)
- Maybe add a link to each mentor's Gerrit activity and some generic sentence like "As mentors are often volunteers, they sometimes have more time and sometimes less time in life. Use the link to check their latest activity" or such? But again: Not all projects use Gerrit.
- Maybe regularly (once a year? twice?) ping every mentor on the list via email (?) / wiki email (?). Ask them if they are still available (it is fine to state that it is unclear or to remove yourself). Ask them if the description still lists projects which interest them, with links to more information or to general Phabricator queries or such. cf Debian Maintainer Ping.
- If we kept such a list of users, do we need to encourage mentors to provide 'more' contact info on their user pages, or is current info sufficient?
- Your thoughts?