On Thu, 06 Apr 2006 17:56:06 +0100 MJ Ray wrote: > Jonas Smedegaard <dr@jones.dk> > > On Thu, 06 Apr 2006 16:35:38 +0100 MJ Ray wrote: > > > Of your last 20 recorded uses of the word "Maintainer" on > > > debian lists before this thread that I found, you use it once > > > in another meaning (webmaster) and that was uncapitalised. > > > > Which makes "Maintainer" unsuitble for translation maintainers how, > > exactly? > > If 95% of the time, people (including you, as described) use > Maintainer to mean package maintainer, then people will not > read Maintainer and think "...or translator or tech writer..." > in this context. Many people (including me) would not even > think of using Maintainer to refer to a translator. I deal with packaging 95% of the time, so yes, most probably I use the term mostly in packaging contexts. And when used in Debian Policy to describe packaging rules, it makes sense to equal "maintainer" with "package maintainer". But in a general Debian context I would be rude to assume _package_ maintainance, ignoring other important maintainance tasks within our project. > > > What are the contributors doing if not helping to maintain > > > the package, in your opinion? > > > > I do not talk about "contributors", but several different kinds of > > "maintainers". > > You did write about contributors. I wrote about those contributors committed to Debian by _maintaining_ a part of Debian, be it packages, languages, law texts or other parts. The most exact general term I know of for that group of contributors is, well, maintainers. Another general term, developers, is fine too. But IMHO not better. And I see not reason to avoid the term "maintainers" to mean _all_ maintainers - even if some of them has other more suitable terms when described by themselves - as is the case with those maintaining translations as discussed below. > > What eg. Translation Maintainers are doing besides helping maintain > > some package is maintaining _consistency_ across packages, and > > across pseudo-packages like our website. > > Isn't it easier and more common to call them translators, not > Translation Maintainers? It is, yes. And it is easier and more common to call package maintainers maintainers. But that doesn't make "maintainers" mean only package maintainers. - Jonas -- * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist og Internet-arkitekt * Tlf.: +45 40843136 Website: http://dr.jones.dk/ - Enden er nær: http://www.shibumi.org/eoti.htm
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