Re: Should we try to draw more attention on ITAs waiting for sponsorship (with testing removal) ?
+++ Neil Williams [2014-01-30 13:25 +0000]:
> On Thu, 30 Jan 2014 13:51:40 +0100
> Olivier Berger <olivier.berger@telecom-sudparis.eu> wrote:
>
> > I myself isn't very motivated to sponsor packages which I don't
> > use... but maybe I'm not noticing at all (or didn't read
> > how-can-i-help messages ;-).
>
> That's the crux of it - a sponsor needs some level of interest in the
> package, beyond whether it is scheduled for removal. Fly-by sponsoring
> is not helpful, the sponsor needs to keep an eye on the package - and
> work with the maintainer - for the long term.
In general I'd agree with that, but there are exceptions. It's perfectly
possible that the maintainer is actually doing a great job of
maintaining by keeping on top of bugs and versions (or at least doing a
much better job than the official maintainer)and the only thing they
need is upload help.
Yes, they should get DM status, but there will always be some sponsored
uploads first. We probably lose (good) people when they do this sort of
work and then just get ignored.
The problem for a maintainer with no particular interest in a package is
determining whether the above is the case for a particular
package/request or not.
I've sponsored a couple of things where clearly someone had done a
reasonable job of bug-fixing/updating/backporting a poorly-maintained
package and despite me having never heard of it or them before, doing an
upload for them was helpful.
Clearly long-term relationships and maintainership is better, and
uploaders remain responsible for what they upload, but getting more
(competent) people involved and making it easy for them to get started,
and just simply uploading stuff that needs uploading when bugs have been
fixed, is good too.
So I disagree that 'fly-by sponsoring' is always 'not helpful'.
Sometimes it _is_ helpful. Any tools that made it easier to judge when
would be good. Just being on the mentors list gives a poor overview of
how much is slipping through the net.
Wookey
--
Principal hats: Linaro, Emdebian, Wookware, Balloonboard, ARM
http://wookware.org/
Reply to: