I think anyone scared off that way is just looking for an excuse to run anyway. It's not like there exists a programming language that actually has no bugs. At best we have finally given up on those bugs being fixed and call them warts now.
Maybe there could be an 'introduction to submitting patches to Python' tutorial with a VM that includes:
- A Python implementation with some obvious and easy to find bugs (plus hints).
- A checklist of the patch notes/emails that would be expected.
- The e-mail address of someone who will read and respond to the submitted patch and offer feedback. (Should be low traffic, and it'd be worth answering the email to get a new patch submitter.)
Might also want to check how topcoder did it. They're not perfect (like WoW) but they've built a huge company on free labor, basically. WoW gets the serfs to pay for it.
