[...] > > > > - Briefly looking at http://lists.debian.org/debian-mentors/2010/09/ > > it seems that the number of emails not being responded to by anyone is not > > that high. Furthermore it seems there's a lot more to this list than just RFS. > > And I found only a single non-RFS email that wasn't responded to. > > Manually counting all the unanswered emails to d-mentors for 2010-09 I get: > > RFS QA: 1 > RFS: 34 > RFS NMU: 1 > non-RFS: 1 > > or 37 unanswered emails. This includes duplicates like "2nd"/"3rd" ping. > When I counted I assumed any email that had received a reply was > answered satisfactory, btw. > > Personally I would like to see that 37 drop closer to 0. > See also pabs' messages: Working on RFS as mentors can apparently be just as depressing. In other (more drastic) words: I see no good reason to respond to SPAM/UBE (the sheer amount of RFS makes them bulk email, and low quality makes them unsolicited). I just feel it's only mentors being blamed for not responding in time, but did any of today's RFS submitters (and potential mentees) actually read this thread? > > - As a mentor, as far as RFS are concerned, I can only work on packages where I > > have some proper background. That is, I should be using those packages or work > > on related packages. > > I agree that we cannot expect that any DD can sponsor any given package > dumped on d-mentor. But if we see an RFS remain unanswered we can have a > look at it and try to associate the package with the relevant teams or > keywords (e.g. as you did with vavoom -> contact games team). > Maybe mentors.d.n could include a link to http://wiki.debian.org/Teams? > > - As a mentor, I cannot look at each and every RFS, I'll have to be able to spot > > interesting packages quickly. I therefore ignore all RFS with package names > > where I cannot deduce that they could be relevant for me. Hint: it might be > > useful to add the short description of the main binary package to the subject > > (I have no idea what, e.g., "vavoom" is about). > > Perhaps we can extend mentor's RFS template to recommend such a > practise? And even in the case where mentees do not do it (good enough > to easily "sort" the package) we can (as explained above) spend the > 10-20 minutes to write review the email + d/control file and come with a > suggestion for whom to contact or simply reply with a "this package is > this and that" so other DDs can easier find it. > Well, I cannot easily afford that time of spending 10 minutes or more for each and every (or, say, every fith) RFS. This isn't kindergarten. For example, I would expect people sending something to this list to have been lingering around for a while, just a netiquette suggests. Under this assumption people sending and RFS later today should have read our conversation here. Either they ignored it or didn't even read it (I actively refuse to read what "RFS: nesc" or "RFS: fritzing" are about, but those RFS have received attention anyhow). > > - Although debian-mentors is a default destination for RFS, it would probably > > better to contact one of the teams that works on related packages. Again, the > > vavoom package (I now looked at the RFS): Why wasn't > > pkg-games-devel@lists.a.d.o contacted? > > > > Agreed; it would be nice if we could have mentors.d.n recommend this > (particularly if it could come with educated guesses based on the source > package). > See suggested link above. [...] > > I very much agree with this one; though the question is how do we > promote this better to mentees (particularly first time mentees)? One > would be adding it to the mentors.d.n RFS template, but can you think of > other things? > I /think/ the "New Maintainers Guide" recently was updated to promote > teams as well, but I could be wrong. > How do people actually find their way to this list? It seems that mentors.d.n is widely adopted, so adding information to the template or even a checklist before the RFS template is shown could be very effective. I might sound a bit harsh in several points; I don't (yet) share pabs' frustration, but maybe just because I do only pick up a very small number of RFS. I just felt the initial post in this thread completely left out the aspect that also mentees could do better. Sure, mentors could do a lot better, but this must be a collaborative effort. Best, Michael
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