Re: Work-needing packages report for Jul 11, 2003
On Sun, Jul 20, 2003 at 01:46:17PM -0600, Joel Baker wrote:
> As a note of reference, particularly to NM-queue folks: this is more or
> less exactly what used to happen, so far as I can make out from
> statements by longtime DDs and archive mails.
Not in my experience.
> You got to be a DD by submitting patches to bugs, doing work that others
> considered valuble (in more than one case, AFAICT, rebuilding packages a la
> the C++ transition, with uploads done by something much resembling today's
> sponsorship), and generally just being around enough until someone poked
> the folks in charge and said "make <foo> a Developer".
I got to be a developer by telling Robert Leslie: "Hey, you didn't fix
the bug I reported in mpack. Can I take the package and fix it?"
Then he said, "Sure", and I mailed a scan of my passport to Bruce Perens
and became a Debian Developer.
Now I'm looking for a new maintainer for mpack because I no longer
use it, btw :-)
> I suspect this is a large part of why many of the older developers don't
> see this as a problem, innately - I also suspect that they might hold a
> different opinion if they spent 8-12 months in that situation.
I'm an older developer and I see it as a BIG problem. I'm currently
a member of a project that I wouldn't join if I came across it today.
That's inconsistent, and I'm pondering the ethics of the situation.
I'm not just talking about the wait for DAM approval, but also the
need to be a motivated contributor for a long time without being part
of the group. For me those things are inextricably linked. And I would
never have had the patience to go through sponsorship for things I should
be able to do by myself, and I would never have dared to take reponsibility
for a package that I can't fix myself.
Richard Braakman
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