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Re: another reason why requiring NMs to be sponsored is a bad idea



On Thu, Jan 17, 2002 at 02:22:53PM +0100, Thomas Seyrat wrote:
>   I packaged a requested software (see #120912), plus a related one, put
>   both on  http://glou.net/~thomas/debian/ with  full source,  posted to
>   debian-mentors, put my  name and description for both  packages on the
>   sponsorship program web page, and ... got _absolutely_ no answer.
> 
>   Now, my question is : are  these packages totally unuseful to Debian ?
>   And, if  so, should  I go  on searching  wnpp for  something hopefully
>   useful,  package it  again, and  get the  same result,  no sponsor  or
>   advocate ?

When I first saw the announcement about the new requirement for advocates, I
understood it to mean I should first get involved in something already in
Debian to give people a chance to get to know me before even thinking about
going though NM:

	You should advocate someone when you think that he is ready to be a
	developer -- when he has the required skills and when he has been
	involved with the project for some time.  Just ask yourself if you
	want to see him in Debian -- if you think he should be a Debian
	developer then go ahead and recommend him. [1]

For my part, I got involved initially by sending some modifications and
suggestions for existing packages that I had installed on my machine to the
maintainers.  That developed into me contributing several new features,
bugfixes and general suggestions for whereami, maintained by Andrew
McMillan.  When apt-proxy was orphaned in December, I asked Andrew if he
would be willing to sponsor uploads for me and advocate me as a NM, to which
he immediately agreed, even though he had no personal interest in apt-proxy
itself.  He had already seen enough of my coding and packaging to be willing
to provide sponsorship, for which I am very grateful.

There is a huge amount that can be done in Debian which would benefit
existing users and/or developers, without needing to find a developer who
has sufficient spare time to look at a completely new package from an
unknown person.  I would highly recommend looking to help out with existing
work, rather than wanting to create new work before anyone knows your
skills.  You can always contribute new packages later.

Chris

[1] http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2001/debian-devel-announce-200102/msg00004.html
-- 
Chris Halls | Frankfurt, Germany

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