Re: Fwd: Rejecting NM applicant Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>
Josip Rodin <joy@srce.hr> writes:
> On Thu, Jul 03, 2003 at 09:38:52AM +0200, David N. Welton wrote:
> > As someone said, the process selects for people that are good at
> > dealing with beaurocracy.
> > I would like to see a meritocracy. You do good things (making
> > .deb's, helping out), you get added. It would waste people's time
> > less, because applicants who weren't ready wouldn't get added, and
> > those who were would be invited.
> How do you suppose we organize and maintain this? This sentiment
> appeals to me as much as it does to anyone else, but Debian is too
> large to be able to work without a carefully organized
> structure. "You do good things, you get added" doesn't explain how
> exactly we deal with people. Debian simply cannot be based entirely
> on instincts. In fact, the very next thing that comes to my mind
> with such an approach is that people's privileges would be revocable
> in the same way, and that's a very slippery slope (Gentoo fork,
> anyone?).
I didn't say disorganized, I said meritocracy. Of course it would
need some regulation governing it. The central point is that the goal
is no longer "get to be a Debian developer", because that's not what
you apply for. That's what eventually happens when you "do stuff for
Debian". In part, it's a matter of managing expectations and
perceptions.
As to how it would work - why not transform the NM volunteers into a
group that is the contact point for 'external' work - a place to go
when you have created a .deb, or want to help out with existing
efforts. The 'NM process' could then be one of observing the work
done by the external volunteers, and keeping track of them. After a
while (and this could even be a much longer process than the current
NM queue), those whose contributions were of consistent quality and
who demonstrated a continuing interest would be selected to be made
debian developers. In the case of someone like Mr. Walsh, it would
allow us to have seen whether he did what he said he was going to, and
thus become a valuable addition to Debian, or determine that he didn't
have the time indeed, instead of the speculation that "well, he
probably didn't have time anyway if he didn't want to go through the
hazing process".
Anyway, maybe there are elements of a meritocracy that are unworkable,
but do not forget that there are elements of the current situation
that are very much suboptimal themselves.
Anyway, hope it's some food for thought,
--
David N. Welton
Consulting: http://www.dedasys.com/
Personal: http://www.dedasys.com/davidw/
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