Come for the Software, Stay for the Community

Drupal is used, built, taught, documented, and marketed by the Drupal community, which is made up of people from around the world, with a shared set of values, collaborating together in a respectful manner.

You are welcome to use the software and read the documentation as a visitor, but the hope of the Drupal community is that you will join in, find people who share your interests, and grow your skills!

Image courtesy Gábor Hojtsy

A community of 100,000+ stories

Everyone in the Drupal community has a story. We come from many backgrounds, with many skills and many perspectives -- but every month, more than 1500 people come together to improve the Drupal software, translations, documentation, and the community itself. Here are a few examples:

  • Kevin Thull started recording sessions at DrupalCamp Chicago in 2013, and developed a kit for other DrupalCamps to use
  • xjm started out fixing bugs in the TAC contributed module, and is now a Drupal Core maintainer
  • Melissa Anderson started using Drupal, joined her local Drupal user group meetup, and ended up managing the Great Git Migration project
  • And there are many more stories

Ready to join in?

The community is working on a new Contributor Guide to help you figure out how to use your particular skills to contribute to the Drupal project and add your story to the Drupal community. You can contribute as much or as little time as you want -- some tasks may be as quick as a few minutes, and some roles can span years.

Not convinced yet?

In general, people volunteer their time because it is fun, interesting, challenging, and engaging; because it can help them improve their skills or reputation; and because it is meaningful. Here are some thoughts about how contributing to the Drupal project and community fits with those goals:

Synergy
The more we work together, the more we all benefit from having better software, documentation, translations, and community. Reporting or fixing a problem you have found improves the software, documentation, or translation you are using, which helps you and the rest of the community -- and inspires others to contribute.
Practice and improve your skills
Whether it’s coding, user interface design, graphic design, writing, or organizing, if you’re looking for practice, there’s a task for you! There are also opportunities to practice leadership and management skills, such as resolving conflicts, organizing teams of people, and prioritizing work.
Find mentors and teach others
Working with others on a shared project means you’ll have to explain how you do things, as well as ask other people for help. The acts of learning and teaching can be a fulfilling activity for everyone involved.
Meet people with similar interests
The Drupal community spans the globe, and many people form lifelong friendships through their participation in the Drupal community, whether it’s running into each other at conferences or late night online chats about burritos.
Build public artifacts that help you grow a reputation (and a career)
Drupal is an open-source project, so all of work is public, which means you get free examples to take anywhere as a demonstration of what you can do. Many contributors also look at Drupal project contributions when making hiring decisions for Drupal-related jobs.

Browse the Contributor Guide to find out how to use your particular skills to contribute to the Drupal project.

Community Connections

The community organizes itself into topical and geographic groups on https://groups.drupal.org. A few groups also have spaces here:

Community Working Group

The mission of the Community Working Group (CWG) is to foster a friendly and welcoming community for the Drupal project and to uphold the Drupal Code of Conduct. Read more at the Community Working Group Section.

Nonprofit Drupal

If you work in a nonprofit using Drupal, or you work with nonprofits using Drupal, this is the community group for you!

Promote Drupal

Drupal agencies span the globe, working with varied industries and audiences, but with one common goal: we are all working to grow Drupal adoption. If you're promoting Drupal in your market, here are marketing materials, content, and resources for your use.

Mentoring

The Drupal Mentoring team is a working group that supports mentors at daily bases, organizes follow-up activities and helps the Drupal Association to manage mentoring in the community.

Contribution Events

The Contribution Events initiative seeks to promote contribution events worldwide.

Event Organizers

The Event Organizers' Group is a newly forming group of people who organize Drupal related events around the World

Local Associations

Local Drupal Associations organize regional efforts, promote local business, support local camps, and to help coordinate with the global Drupal Association.

Here are some other ways to get involved with the Drupal community, and get help with various issues you may have:

I want help installing and using Drupal

Installing and first using Drupal can, at first, seem to be a daunting prospect, but there are resources to help you, and you can also evaluate and test Drupal without even needing to install it.

Drupal documentation is constantly evolving. You can learn about getting started at:

You can connect with other members of the Drupal community by:

I want to connect with members of the Drupal community who live or work nearby

Finding a local Drupal group that is active in your region, or starting up or reuniting an inactive group, is a way to connect with others using Drupal, contribute to the community, and grow, personally and professionally.

To find a local or regional group:

  • Start by looking at the list of regional groups on groups.drupal.org (but note that the keyword search is not currently working on this page -- you may be better off using your favorite web search engine).
  • Some regional Drupal groups and language communities use instant messaging tools, such as Slack (sign up and browse the channel list) and DrupalChat.me (sign up, then browse the channel list).
  • Many Drupal language communities have their own web sites, forums, and chat channels, where you can connect with others who speak your language. Visit https://www.drupal.org/language-specific-communities to find these communities.
  • You might want to attend an event in your area. You can find Drupal events at https://drupical.com. If you are new to Drupal, a Global Training Days event might be a good choice.
  • Some local communities and regional events have their own websites, use meetup.com, or are active on other social media. Try a web search to find them.
  • You can also find nearby community members in the Drupal Association Individual Member Directory. This list isn’t all encompassing; however, it is a group of members who actively support the work of the Drupal Association.
  • There is also a list of organizations using Drupal, which you can filter by country.

This section is still under discussion - you can help here: #3005613: Add Section Heading “I want to connect with members of the Drupal community who live or work nearby”

I want to report a software or documentation bug that I have found

If you find a problem with the Drupal software or documentation, it will be a great benefit to the Drupal community if you report it, so it can be fixed or addressed. Each project on Drupal.org (Drupal core, modules, themes, and distributions) has its own public area for issue tracking, known as an issue queue, where anyone can report and collaborate on fixing issues (learn more at Overview of projects and issues). There is also a project called "Documentation", where issues with the documentation on Drupal.org are located. Note that you should not report issues by contacting the software maintainers via email, contact forms, or social media. Using the issue tracking system helps to ensure that a permanent, public record of the issue is kept, including the conversation about how best to address it.

Where to report issues:

  • Security issues are handled in a separate, confidential issue queue, to ensure that they are fixed before vulnerabilities become public. Read about Reporting a security problem
  • Documentation on drupal.org: you can edit the documentation directly if you have something to add, correct, or clarify. If you're unsure, add your correction as a comment instead.
  • API documentation on api.drupal.org: The API documentation is generated from specially-formatted comments in the code, so issues are reported in the same way as Software issues (see next line).
  • Software: see Finding the issues for a project -- always report issues in the relevant project. Note that some projects rely on third-party libraries that are maintained elsewhere. Issues related to those libraries need to be reported to the maintainers of those libraries using their established issue procedures. You can start by reporting an issue in the Drupal project that uses the library; the Drupal project maintainer may ask you to report the issue elsewhere.
  • Drupal.org web site: see Get Help
  • Translations: The team for the affected language on Drupal.org's localization server

Drupal documentation is constantly evolving. You can read about issue reporting and project maintenance processes at:

You can connect with other members of the Drupal community, collaborating on issues, through:

I want to report an incident of harassment or get help resolving a conflict

Members of the Drupal community are expected to treat each other with respect and abide by the Drupal Code of Conduct. Bullying or harassment of any form is not tolerated. If you experience or observe an incident of harassment in a Drupal community space that requires immediate intervention, report it to the designated moderators of that space.

The Drupal Code of Conduct is maintained by the Drupal Community Working Group (CWG). Incidents can be reported to the CWG via its Incident Report Form.

If you are experiencing a conflict with another community member, the Drupal community has an established conflict resolution process. The CWG is also available to provide assistance if needed.

I want to get a job working with Drupal

There has long been a strong market in roles for people working with Drupal. As one of the largest and longest living open source projects, Drupal can offer a career for the long term.

To ensure your best opportunities for a career in Drupal, you might want to consider using your Drupal profile to demonstrate your understanding of the project, through updating information about yourself and your experience. Also, if you contribute to the Drupal project, your profile will automatically list contribution credits for the work you get involved in.

Here are some places to look for jobs:

  • Drupal Jobs
  • Generic job-searching and professional networking sites can also be good resources for finding Drupal jobs. You can join Drupal groups on sites like LinkedIn, and search using Drupal keywords on job sites.

You can also connect with other members of the Drupal community, through:

  • Instant messaging tools, such as Slack (sign up, then join channel(s) #jobs and #jobs-remote) and DrupalChat.me (sign up, then join channel(s) #jobs).
  • Meeting prospective employers face to face at an event local to you. Indeed, looking for new employees is often one of the reasons sponsors are at an event. You can find Drupal events at https://drupical.com