Re: [EOT, hopefully] NM flamefest

[Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au>]

On Mon, Jan 15, 2001 at 07:48:24PM +1100, Hamish Moffatt wrote:
> True, but it might decrease the demand for new maintainership.
> Hypothetically there may be people in the queue who are more
> interested in a cool email address than in helping Debian.

this assertion has been made several times without any proof. so,
where's the proof that it's actually happening or that it's even a
problem?

an email address isn't that valuable. most people have several. many
have more than they want already, and vanity domains are easy and cheap
to get.

even if it is happening, who cares? is it a big enough problem to
justify keeping dozens of enthusiastic and genuine volunteers on hold
indefinitely? the "solution" does way more harm than the so-called
problem.

we have a lengthy NM procedure to verify identity and to weed out
undesirables - isn't that enough?

once their application has been processed, their accounts should be
created ASAP to let them get on with whatever work it is they want to do
for debian.

i suspect that this is what some people want, but eventually these
volunteers are going to get bored and pissed off and just give up. even
worse, in the long run nobody will bother applying to become a debian
developer because they couldn't be bothered waiting months or years to
get through the process. this is not desirable. we need the energy and
enthusiasm of newcomers almost as much as we need the experience of
old-timers.

craig

(a debian old-timer who isn't impressed by the recurring attempts to
treat new volunteers as second-class-citizens)

--
craig sanders