On Fri, Jul 24 2009, Kevin Mark wrote:
If someone goes through the arduious process of becomeing a DD:
proving their knowledge of:
a. FLOSS ideals,
b. Debian ideals,
c. FLOSS legal ideas,
d. computer languages,
e. social skills
f. and patience to wait for various approvals, account creation,
g. getting packages though NEW and
h. making uploads that dont damage users systems.
And then assuming they go MIA, get their account deactivated and then
reapply for DD status. What are they expected to show to be
readmitted? I dont assume that they lost any of those skills in a-h.
Packaging for Debian is not a static knowledge base; policies and
practices change, and there are changes in infrastructure. If you have
been away for a few years, you migh well be out of touch, and it is not
unreasonable for the project to ask them to demonstrate that they
retain the requisite skills.
Also, computer language skills do degrade with lack of practice;
I am far less fluent in languages I have not used for a few years than
when I was using them actively.