Re: -= PROPOSAL =- Release sarge with amd64
* Steve Greenland <steveg@moregruel.net> [2004-07-14 09:50]:
> > However, the other DPL candidates didn't say that they would
> > change that as well. Which is the basic reason why tbm got my vote
> > this time again.
>
> I think you need to go back and read Branden's platform.
I think you have to go back and read mine
(http://www.debian.org/vote/2004/platforms/tbm), specifically the
section about "Internal - Core Teams, Delegates, Communication,
Transparency". Everyone in this thread who have asked me as DPL to
add new members to existing teams or replace existing delegates
completely should read and think about this section. As DPL, I'll do
my best to make sure that a role is performed by members who have
enough time, competence and can communicate. However, I can only work
with the resources which are available. If there are no suitable
volunteers, there is not much I can do.
I've been trying since I've been DPL to find more members for the
overworked security team, and I've been looking for members for other
teams (such as listmaster) too. However, it turned out to be very
hard to actually find volunteers who're interested, have enough time,
are competent or actually get any work done. What I found instead is
that a large number of people are only interested in their own
packages. If people were interested in all of Debian, we surely would
have less RC bugs and more people attending BSPs, right? We need more
people who are truly interested in helping with a variety of tasks,
and not just people who complain but who're not willing to help fix
the situation. As an example, there were many people complaining
about the speed of the NM process but very few people actually
volunteered to help out. And some of those who actually volunteered
found out when processing their first applicant that they don't have
the time or interest and stopped, leaving me with the mess to clean
up...
Anyway, back to the problem at hand. Without good, capable
volunteers, nothing can be done. In some cases (e.g. security), help
has been requested several times and nothing happened. In other cases,
it has to be made more explicit what is needed and how people can help
(I've some information from the listmasters I intend to circulate
soon). In any case, we need people who actually volunteer and who
approach the problem the right way. I've seen quite a few offers left
unanswered because they were made in a suboptimal way. As I argued in
my platform, adding members to an existing team has to be done the
right way. Just popping up without actually having done anything for
that team before or knowing any of the members is usually a bad idea.
In some cases, there is not much someone who's not a member of a team
can do; but in the majority of the cases, people can contribute a lot.
For example, if you want to help the ftpmaster team, one way would be
to help with katie, the archive software tools. There is a long TODO
list and nothing stops people from sending in patches. This would
show the ftpmaster team that you're interested in this task, actually
understand the software involved and can contribute, and it would be a
first step of contact. For the security team, people can follow
security mailing lists, forward those advisories as bugs to our BTS,
forward patches, prepare packages with those patches, etc.
I agree with some mails asking for more documentation about delegate
roles (of their tasks, the procedures employed, etc) and I'll follow
up on that soon. At the same time, I agree with Colin Watson's
posting that the lack of documentation about the release has not
stopped him from volunteering. It seems that those truly interested
in helping out and getting involved will find a way; and maybe they
can even document it along the way to make it easier for others. So
the question everyone here should ask themselves is what they have
done to improve the situation.
--
Martin Michlmayr
leader@debian.org
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