Mark Stosberg kicks ass. Note only is he a driving force in CGI::Application, he’s also working on some scutwork in CGI.pm. He got privileges to the CGI.pm bug queue and has closed 100 of the 150 bugs in the queue. (He’s also done this for me with the WWW::Mechanize queue, too)

Note that I didn’t say he fixed 100 tickets, but that he closed 100 tickets. As he notes:

Many had already been addressed by Lincoln some time ago. Those were simply closed. Still, I found about 20 fairly ready-to-go patches, and those have now been processed and released today as CGI.pm 3.45. Whenever code changes were made, I also strived to make sure new automated tests were added that covered those cases. You may be surprised how many methods in CGI.pm have no automated tests for them at all.

Although Mark Stosberg is a fine programmer in his own right, what he’s been doing here requires no special skills, no megabrain rockstar code chops. He’s doing project management and cleanup. It’s so simple, even you can do it.

Yes, I’m talking to you out there, thinking “I’ve always wanted to get into open source projects,” whether it’s to improve your career or just to help out. There are always ways you can pitch in that don’t involve writing new code. I hope you’ll find some and join us.