Re: [New maintainer] Working for Debian and becoming a registere
On Thu, Aug 05, 1999 at 07:42:34PM +1000, THOMSON R wrote:
> On Wed, 4 Aug 1999, David Welton wrote:
>
> > > No "problems" .. New maintainer processing is frozen at the moment
> > Excuse me for not being terrible informed about all the political
> > intracacies of Debian - I'm not terribly interested in them, being
> > more concerned with hacking on cool free software. However, I'm
> > finding myself in a position of not understanding how it came to pass
> > that this was just 'decided'. I mean, we vote on things like the
> > logo... and yet something as momentous as closing Debian just happens?
> > I guess if it were "temporary, until we can vote on it" it might be
> > one thing, necessary to expedite something deemed important to have
> > carried out in a timely manner, until such time as it could be decided
> > by vote, but - the duration is apparently "until the next release",
> > which as many Debian people may know, might be a bit...
> > So, to borrow a phrase, what's the deal with that?
> Don't shoot! I'm not a maintainer yet..
I've been one since sometime in '97, IIRC.
> My reasoning is a guess... it's "until further notice" (iirc), which
> I assume is potato stability ;-) .. As I've stated, I think it's a
> good idea to have compulsory mentors, whereby before a new
> maintainer is given full status, they must be lead by a current
> maintainer, and when the quality of packages is sufficient, and the
> mentor recommends it, they can become a full maintainer..
I think that some excellent points were brought up regarding a lot of
the new maintainers joining the project, only to see them package one
or two obscure .debs, while a lot of things in the core 'rot' from
lack of attention. However, I don't think arbitrarily shutting things
down on a whim is the way to go about fixing things.
And even if it is, it should at least be communicated to the people
applying to be new maintainers. Is it indeed the case that you (the
non-maintainers waiting on their applications) have been told nothing
about this 'freeze'? IRC does not count.
And as far as there being only two people. Well, yes, we need trusted
people, but come on, people have made noises about expanding this
group for more than a year now, with no action.
We are heading for a sort of fork here. Remember, just because they
are new maintainers, it doesn't mean they are people who cannot
contribute - possibly even a lot, or that we are 'doing them a favor'
by 'letting them in' Debian. Eventually, enough of these people will
have had enough, and start forming a peripheral project. I'm of a
mind to participate...
Ciao,
--
David N. Welton < Sors immanis - et inanis - rota tu volubilis,
davidw@prosa.it > status malus - vana salus - semper dissolubilis,
http://www.efn.org/~davidw < obumbrata - et velata - michi quoque niteris;
debian.org + prosa.it > nunc per ludum - dorsum nudum - fero tui sceleris.
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