Re: GR: welcome non-packaging contributors as Debian project members
Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org> writes:
> after seeing the torrent of seconds, I am still puzzled if this GR is a
> progress or a regression: is the take home message that Debian should be
> more open, or that some members must not have upload rights ? When a
> member does not have upload rights, is it for the principle of least
> needed priviledge, which suggests that getting that prividedge may be
> granted automaticaly later with the need, or because that member is not
> trusted to be able to upload correctly ?
Well, if one isn't interested in upload rights, there's no need for one to
qualify on upload rights during NM, which implies omitting or at least
much abbreviating the Tasks and Skills part of NM. But if we want to
maintain the policy that anyone with general upload rights complete Tasks
and Skills for package uploads, we wouldn't want to extend those rights
later without having the person go through NM.
I see this as a step towards making NM more modular. Qualification on
general package upload is now a "module" that is optional in NM if you're
not interested in contributing in that way, but of course you don't get
that access until you qualify.
I don't know if the process is the same elsewhere as it is in the US, but
in the US you have to take an exam to get a driver's license, which
qualifies you to drive standard cars on public roads. If you want to
qualify for motorcycles, you have to take a separate exam; similarly for
commercial trucks. To me, that feels like the direction we should be
heading for in NM. Separate privileges require separate qualification.
Right now, we qualify all DDs for everything with some manually-handled
exceptions, but really Policy and Procedures is the only universal
qualification for all DDs (I think). All the other stuff, like general
package upload, is a separate "module," sort of like qualifying for
motorcycles in addition to regular cars. I could see adding additional
things like that in the long run; for example, login to porter boxes could
be a separate module with some qualification (such as reading and
understanding the usage policy).
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
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