So, according to Dries’ chart, I have begun to kick Drupal ass.

Why? Because:

1. I develop the Drupal module MySite.
2. I understand Drupal theming.
3. I’ve written some documentation on Drupal.org.
4. I help in the Drupal support forums.
5. I’ve done some very minor patches and reviews to core.

But I still feel guilty about item #5. I don’t contribute much to core Drupal, frankly, because most of it is over my head. The new menu system, for example, needs performance benchmarking and code review. And I just don’t feel comfortable with that.

So, rather than just whining, what I’m trying to say is that some of us are able to kick a litle ass because Drupal itself handles so many elements of development for us: user access, SQL escaping, XSS filtering, and so forth.

Now if only I could figure out jQuery…

Update: I suppose, technically, I’m a Drupal consultant, too, since I talk with other folks who are looking to implement Drupal. But I don’t currently charge for services.