The problems you mention are easily solved with a properly defined contribution process.
- Make contributors sign a Contributor License Agreement (CLA)
- Add in linting rules (tabs vs spaces, indentation, file naming, function naming, structure)
- Make unit tests absolutely essential. Enforce a hard, no test, no merge rule. Unit tests alone will ensure the quality of the contributions is higher than random code with no tests.
- Incentivise contributions by partnering with @utopian-io in exchange for delegating them Steem power, Steemit can partner and help set goals/expectations for contributions. People will gladly contribute if they get a nice hefty upvote as Utopian has already proven
- A clear roadmap of what Steemit wants to do, what features they want help with, things they want to improve (use Github issues, projects and boards to help manage this)
Look at StackOverflow, it's the perfect example of a platform that entrusted the community to maintain it and it has worked quite well, which is impressive given the size of StackOverflow and other StackExchange platform sites.
I actually am a core team member of a large open source Javascript framework that is very friendly to open source contributions. We have found that requiring unit tests alone takes a lot of the work out of reviewing, and in most cases changes are simply optimisations or linter warnings.
I haven't examined the Condenser codebase extensively, but from the outset it doesn't look like it has a whole lot of test coverage and I think that should be one of the first places to start. If we can get tests covering most of the current codebase, then we can use those tests to refactor and guide new features, whilst ensuring nothing breaks.
So many talented developers in the community are being wasted, a huge missed opportunity. I don't speak for everyone but as an experienced front-end developer with eleven years experience, I can say if STINC were more receptive to community contributions and trusting, I would gladly help improve not only Steemit but other apps as well.
I think what it comes down to is STINC seems to distrust the very community that keeps this site and blockchain running. Many of us want to see Steem succeed, many of us are working on ways to improve Steem and Steemit itself.
dead on...I can tell you've worked on improving legacy systems doing QA in a large development project or two.
Super excellent advice by a seasoned dev; and in my experience these kinds of views take time to digest in any large O. Source SW group. Egos take time to put aside, critical issues take time to dismiss, and then we have time to start including the community in development.
Seems like great advice! Thanks!