How can I contact the mentors?
This question is often asked in the GitHub discussion forums here. Since you are already getting the replies here, the answer is, you can contact the mentors in the GitHub discussion forums, as listed under each project idea.
Why I did not get a reply from the mentors?
While we try to reply to all the questions, sometimes we ignore certain generic questions. "I like project idea #1. Can you please let me know how to get started?" is a question that can be written by anyone without even a bit of effort on their part. To ensure you get replies, make sure to ask specific questions. Also, go through the previous discussions and documentation first to make sure your question is already answered somewhere else.
Can I contact you in Telegram/Whatsapp/...?
Please do not contact the mentors via emails and social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, ...) messages. We are unlikely to accept LinkedIn/Facebook friend requests and messages from potential contributors. While we appreciate the enthusiams, we cannot handle messages coming from all the various means/media. Therefore, please stick to the proposed communication channels.
This is just for the application period. Once the contributors are accepted, you can work with your mentor to find a common communication app to have one-to-one meetings and discussions.
I have my proposal draft ready. How can I get the opinions of the mentors?
This is the exception where we ask you to send the project proposal drafts to the mentors. The mentors' email addresses are listed under each project idea.
You can also submit your project proposal to the GSoC site early on. In fact, we encourage that. You can continue to improve the submitted proposal until the last minute/deadline. But if you like us to review the proposal earlier during the application period, it is a good idea to send an email, reminding us to review your proposal in the GSoC site. Otherwise, we will review those after the GSoC application period is over. Please make sure that your proposal is in a complete state when you request reviews/comments.
I shared my project proposal draft with the mentor. But I did not hear back from them.
We try our best to leave comments or at least acknowledge the emails with project proposals. But we do not find a need to comment, "Looks good" or "Looks ok" on proposals. Unless we have specific comments, we do not comment on your proposal.
I received comment from mentor-1 on my proposal. But I did not receive comments from mentor-2, mentor-3, and mentor-4.
While we appreciate your enthusiasm to perfect your proposal, please also understand that the GSoC application period is a big time commitment. So, it is very unlikely you will receive comments from multiple mentors at once. But we all will eventually review the proposals (and get back to you with comments if we need to clarify anything regarding your proposal - even after the application deadline).
I submitted a pull request. Why wasn't it merged?
We test and merge pull requests eventually. GSoC induces a large number of pull requests at once. So, it may take some time to test and merge those. Also, not all the pull requests will be merged. Even if your pull request fixes the reported issue, if it does not follow the coding best practices or introduces additional bugs, we will have to close the pull request with a comment. Please take that as a positive learning experience. Whether your pull request is merged or not, you can (and should) definitely include the links to the pull requests in your proposal.
I have reported a bug in your project. Can I submit a pull request to the bug I reported?
If the reported bug is easy to fix, you can attempt that. Otherwise, please wait for a mentor to confirm the bug. Because some of those bugs you report may be an intended feature. So you do not want to spend your time working on a fix which will eventually be closed without merging.
Please assign bug-X to me.
If this is an open bug that was open for a long time, feel free to attempt a fix at it. While this may mean there will be some duplicate effort during the application period (since multiple candidates may be attempting to fix the bug), it will help you highlight your effort in the GSoC proposal. No need to wait for someone to assign an existing bug to you. (The only exception is when the bug report was created by you. In that case, as mentioned above, please wait for a mentor to confirm the bug - unless the bug is a trivial one to fix.)
I have an interesting project idea that is not listed in the ideas list. Can I submit a proposal to this idea?
Yes, go ahead. But please note that one of our mentors should find your proposa interesting enough to accept your own project idea. Historically, that has never happened. (The own project ideas have always tend to be spammy.)
I like to contribute to the project idea-X. Can you please help me started? This question is a difficult one to answer most of the time. Most project ideas are intentionally left brief for the contributors to provide their own interpretation. That helps use evaluate the contributors better during the application period. A generic question such as the above expect us to expand more on the project idea (with minimal effort from the contributor). To get a useful reply, please be specific in your questions.
Can you explain the coding challenge to project idea-X Same as above. If your have specific question about a project idea, please ask those. If the project idea is entirely unclear, at least provide your own interpretation and confirm whether you understood that correctly. Asking for explanation on a paragraph without mentioning where you need help is merely expecting us to paraphrase what is already written there. Please note that the mentors are evaluating the applicants during the application period. Once the contributors are accepted, we will work more closely with the contributors, providing more assistance and help as needed. A mentor usually invests 2 hours/week on each project they mentor, during the community bonding and coding period.
Oops, I have missed the deadline to submit the project proposal. Please find the proposal in the email attachment. Sorry, we cannot accept email attachments as proposals. Proposals must be submitted to the GSoC site on time before the deadline.
Yes, but the site was unresponsive for the last 10 minutes and I could not submit the proposal. Can you please talk to Google and get me an exception? No. Google is very strict about these deadlines - whether application deadline or an evaluation deadline. As we have mentioned before in GitHub discussions, you should submit your proposal well in advance and continue to edit it based on mentor feedback. You should not wait until the last minute to submit your proposal.
Also, the proposals submitted at last minute are usually of very bad quality (almost, spammy). The decent proposals are usually submitted at least a day or two in advance.
Will my contributions after GSoC deadline will improve my chances for getting accepted into GSoC? Unless we specifically asked for clarifications/changes, your contributions after the GSoC deadline will have no impact. This is to ensure fairness. Proposal deadline functions as the deadline this way.
I participated in a previous GSoC with Emory BMI. Can I participate again as a contributor? If this is your 2nd GSoC and if you meet other GSoC requirements, then absolutely. But you will be fairly judged against the other participants. For fairness sake, all your contributions except for the contributions you made as part of your previous GSoC will be considered as your volunteer contributions. Otherwise, it will be unfair to the new contributors. There was a time students were allowed to participate as contributors for an unlimited number of times in the GSoC. But now it is limited to two. Therefore, it may make more sense to use these limited chances to actually be a contributor in another mentoring organization.
I participated in a previous GSoC with Emory BMI. Can I participate again as a mentor? Absolutely. We will love to have you as a mentor and a long-time collaboorator. Many of our contributors have become mentors and even organization administrators.
We just ask that you have successfully completed your previous GSoC as an outstanding/excellent contributor and continued to be a collaborator with Emory BMI GSoC projects. If you completed a GSoC and disappeared, it is unlikely for you to have a great understanding of the source code and mentoring experience (helping the new contributors).