Steve Langasek wrote:
On Sun, Jun 04, 2006 at 12:18:16PM +0200, Olaf van der Spek wrote:On 6/4/06, Anthony Towns <aj@azure.humbug.org.au> wrote:On Sun, Jun 04, 2006 at 12:18:39AM -0700, Mike Bird wrote:Too many excuses. All inadequate.It is past time that the covert actions of the "small cabal" were openly reviewed. The license (for convenience), any relevant written promises from Sun (if any), and any relevant written legal opinions from counsel (if any) should forthwith be posted to debian-legal.For those playing along at home, Mike isn't a Debian developer, doesn't maintain any packages, and isn't a new-maintainer applicant. He doesn't even seem to be a regular participant on the debian-legal list.None of those things seem to be relevant.For those still playing, Olaf also isn't a Debian developer, doesn't maintain any packages, and isn't a new-maintainer applicant. He's made something like 5 posts to debian-legal, though, which I guess given Andrew Donnellan's assertion that someone with one post ever on -legal is a "regular participant", means Olaf is a senior analyst or something. As beautiful as this irony is of a non-developer asserting on a developer list that being involved in development is irrelevant, you might want to give some thought to the question of why a non-developer making demands of anyone might be seen as doubly-inappropriate.
I'am not a Debian developer and i don't maintain any package. But i regularly read debian-devel (and others) and sometimes reply, because http://lists.debian.org/devel.html summary reports that:
"There are several lists on which developers and experienced users discuss more technical issues. In addition, there are some announcement lists to help experienced users keep track of development."
And near the debian-devel entry there is that description: "Development of Debian".
And since debian-devel is the more general mailing list between development lists, i consider it in the more wide meaning. As contributing to the Debian maintenance and growth, not only writing code.
If it is not correct, please update the web page accordingly: it is ambiguous now.
Because for someone that is not a "primary collaborator", a DD, but use Sid to follow the Debian development, report and comments on bug, reply to suggest improvement, collaborate with developer to solve problems (DD: Please can you try this? What if you run... Your hardware in uncommon, what do you see...) and express sane, constructive and polite opinion on subjects that he judges important and, in general, acts hoping to help the Debian project going on, even on non-regular basis, well in all these cases replies like that of Anthony and Steve looks unpolite and frustrating. They seems to say: "If you don't write code, you cannot permit to speak in debian-devel". Or, that is worse: "If you don't write code you are not partecipating in the Debian development".
Regards. Cesare.