Hi 
Just after Jean put out the email requesting people to proof-read the
Writer Guide i sent a new email to the Users Mailing List pleading for new
people to join the Documentation Team.
I've done the same things many times before but this time seemed to get a
lot more results than usual. I'm not sure why.
I'd tried copying Joel Madero's style which appears to have been a huge
success for the QA Team. I think it helped that we had a very focused task
and that i pointed out this team works by each person taking on just 1
chapter at a time.
With Joel's call to join the QA Team he set-up bug-hunting weekends, or
other very short time-limited periods so that people could join in, try it
out, and then walk away knowing they had achieved something concrete and
good for the project. Err there were a couple other things he was able to
do that i couldn't.
There are other places were we could try this sort of approach. Jean
set-up social-media channels and a blog. There is also the Ask LO bot
thing which i've never got to grips with. I'm not able to post to any of
those and have an aversion to most but if someone else wants to try Joel's
approach on those then we might get even more people joining.
On the other hand maybe i just got lucky with good timing.
Errr, i suddenly felt guilty because of the whole "mythical man month"
thing (sorry, i know that's sexist) so i have been trying to help the new
people "find their feet" quickly. I'm not sure if i helped or hindered or
sent people off on wild goose chases or what. I'm hoping i helped!
Good luck all!
Regards from
Tom