Re: [nm-admin] Need for scanner to become a maintainer?
Matthew Vernon <matthew@sel.cam.ac.uk> writes:
> goswin.brederlow@student.uni-tuebingen.de writes:
>
> > Care should be taken to choose maintainers that recieve their fax on
> > the computer, so it can be used directly without another quality loss
> > by scanning.
>
> This means that people without FAX machines can't be application
> managers, then?
Why? no. It just means that some application managers need to have a
fax capable modem for the few cases where no scanner is available. And
if that fails theres allways mail.
> > I think it is good that Debian has some legal document for each
> > maintainer. Just in case some legal instance drops in (like the FBI)
> > and wants to shutdown Debian because Maintainer Foo hacked their site,
> > Debian can proof the identity of Foo.
>
> Oh, come on. This is utter FUD.
<personal opinion>
I just think its a good thing for debian to know the realname of each
maintainer.
</personal opinion>
Heres another reason why to have some legal document. What if a
maintainer comes back after a long time (like 1 year) and theres
nobody around knowing him (like when he moved). His key is expired or
he lost it and so he must apply for membership again. With the legal
document he can easyly prove to be the same person then last time and
get his own account and username back. Maybe even maintain his
packages again unless someone took them over during his absense.
> > It makes people think twice before going through the trouble of
> > becoming maintainer.
>
> Hm. Many good developers (especially crypto types) are pretty paranoid
> about this sort of thing. I think saying "lets put arbitary
> constraints in the NM-process so we can reduce the number of
> pplicants" is a dangerous thing to do - you can't guaruntee to remove
> the "lest worthwhile" potential applicants. Sure, the process itself
> should (and does) involve a certain amount of screening; but there's a
> difference between carefully screening applicants to ensure that the
> worthwhile ones get selected, and arbitarily trying to put people off
> to reduce our workload.
The screening should be done by the maintainers signing the key, by
the application manager and by kicking dead/stupid
maintainers. Everyone should get his chance.
But its not that hard to scan a passport or to send in a birth
certificate by good old mail. As long as everyone can do it without to
many expenses of time or money its fine and thats the case.
May the Source be with you.
Goswin
PS: I tried to become a maintainer years agao and I'm still not and
scanning the passport wasn't the problem.
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