An MDN mentor is a person committed to helping new contributors in a particular topic area and leading documentation work on MDN in that topic area. Mentors stay informed about the priorities and contribution activities in their topic area. They do not have to do all documentation work related to their topic themselves, and in fact, they are committed to gathering a group of contributors interested in the topic, delegating tasks among the group, and helping empower new contributors.
Becoming a mentor
To become a mentor for a topic, you first need to meet certain qualifications:
- Expertise with the topic
- Active contributor to the topic (at least once a month)
- Active on the #mdn IRC channel and the MDN discussion forum
Once you have met those requirements, you can post on the MDN discussion forum that you would like to become the mentor for a given topic, with an explanation of what topic you would like to mentor and an overview of your qualifications. If you meet the qualifications, we will work with you to get you set up and trained in the basics of how to use the new privileges at your disposal.
Tip: If you want to become a mentor, just start acting like one! If you do a good job at it, you can practically be ensured that we will beg you to stay on in the role!
Are mentors different than topic drivers?
Both role are very close and have similar privileges and responsibilities. The difference is mainly in their commitment. For a given topic, topic drivers lead the documentation and its content where mentors support and empowered the community of contributors around that topic. The two roles are complementary and work hand in hand most of the time.
Responsibilities
The mentor role comes with a number of important responsibilities. Among them:
- Help new contributors and answer their questions
- Coordinate the writing community contributing to the documentation for the topic, to ensure that work gets done and that people don't accidentally document the same thing twice.
- Share with the MDN community the progress and state of the documentation work, by participating in discussions on the MDN discussion forum, and so forth.
- Engage and support new contributors to build a strong team of awesome contributors.
Privileges
In addition to the privileges available to all authenticated users on MDN, mentors have these additional privileges:
- Move pages or trees of pages
- Upload and manage file attachments
- Edit KumaScript macros
Leaving the role
After you become a mentor, you don't have to stay in the role forever. Your interest, priorities, and available time may change, and that's OK. If you foresee that you won't continue as a mentor (or you realize that you have already stopped), please take the following steps:
- Contact Eric Shepherd, the MDN Documentation Lead, to notify him that you are stepping down as mentor.
- If possible, ask someone else who is an active contributor in your topic area to step into the mentor role. If that person agrees, notify the MDN Documentation Lead of the new person taking the role.
If you haven't been active on MDN (or on the MDN discussion forum) in two months, you might be contacted to confirm that you want to continue as mentor. Mentors who are inactive for three months, or do not respond in a reasonable time when contacted, may be removed from their role.