Debian's Social Problems, a descriptive response
Adam Heath said:
>Those who know how to do it know how to do several things. They are
>part of several groups(ftpmaster, owner@bugs, buildd, security, nm).
>Only those that are in the know, and have proven they are trustworthy,
>have been able to fill these roles.
>The software these groups use is all available for everyone to see, so
>others can figure out how it works, if they are willing. <snip>
The crux of the problems is that this isn't totally true. Let's go
through these one by one.
ftpmaster: Packages get dropped into the by-hand queue, whether because
they're new or for some other reason. Then total silence comes out of
ftpmaster for weeks or months. In some cases, the ftpmasters have
decided that they will silently refuse to accept the package; in other
cases there is a legal issue; in other cases ftpmasters are simply busy;
in a few cases there is a technical issue. Package submitters cannot
tell which situation they are in. If they ask, they are insulted by
Anthony Towns. The primary situation seems to be that the ftpmasters
are 'too busy' to handle things quickly. They were asked whether they
wanted volunteers so things could get done faster. The response was
(paraphrasing) "No, we have plenty of people who are qualified," which
is a very confusing reply because there are obviously not enough people
actually doing the job.
This is a purely social problem. The availability of all the software
is irrelevant: Although I would be happy to write a patch which allowed
new packages to go in automatically, without any human intervention,
that is probably a bad idea, for reasons which you all know.
Anyway, the ftpmaster software, although I'm sure it's obtainable, is
quite well-hidden. Tell me how to find it, starting from the main
Debian web page, cause I couldn't.
Model of how not to do things.
owner@bugs: Don't know about people's complaints here, can't comment.
buildd: These people have been very good and very responsive. All the
software is easily available, improvements are readily accepted,
problems are dealt with efficiently and politely.
A model for others to follow.
security: Security seems to, on the whole, do a good job. This is an
inherently controversial topic (what is 'secure enough') and they
generally deal with it politely but firmly and rationally. Everything
is very open. Or at least it was; the development of this 'new
security system' seems to be happening invisibly, or not at all.
nm: Too slow, and offputting to potential nms, but basically executed
well by the people involved. No software involved, so no software
available.
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