Re: (long reply) Re: NM saga (all of it - Joey, this means you)

[Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au>]

On Mon, Jan 15, 2001 at 04:56:47PM +0100, Bas Zoetekouw wrote:
>   1) James did post on -private about this
>   2) The DAM is the one who DECIDES whether you are accepted as a
>      developer or not. He is not just someone who creates accounts. As a
>      delegate of the project leader (e.g. Wichert), he may "may make
>      certain decisions which the Leader may not make directly, including
>      approving or expelling Developers or designating people as
>      Developers who do not maintain packages. " (Debian Constitution).

the key point there is that the DAM is supposed to make decisions. i.e.
approve or reject an application, not ignore it for months and hope it
will go away. btw, those decisions are meant to be guided by a rough
consenus of existing developers. additionally, those decisions (like all
decisions made by the DPL or delegates) can be overruled via a vote on a
general resolution. this fact highlights that the DPL and delegates are
servants of the debian organisation, not the masters.

Joey informed me that he is no longer a DAM, so James is the only one we
have right now. (the NM web pages need to be updated.)

Sure, James might have posted an "i'm away" message but that's no excuse
for ignoring the NM applications that been piling up for months.

if the job is too much for one person, or if James is too busy with
other stuff then we need more people working on it.

we have hundreds of developers. in fact, we have hundreds who have been
around for several years, more than long enough to establish whether
they are trustworthy or not. we should call for volunteers and choose or
elect half-a-dozen or so to do the job.

i can think of at least that many developers who have been around long
enough and have demonstrated their integrity and their committment to
debian who could certainly be entrusted with the responsibility.

it's too important a job to leave in the hands of one or two people.


Wichert, please appoint more DAMs ASAP, or call for an election to
vote some more in if you can't decide on any names.

craig

--
craig sanders