Re: When is DAM approval supposed to happen?
> You must have heard many times by now that Debian is a volunteer effort, and
> things are done on a time-available basis.
Of course we all know this. But the question is really one of bottlenecking,
not of not enough available time of Debian as a whole.
The whole reason that Debian exists (IMO) is that designing and tayloring
an operating system from scratch is too time consuming (by far) for any
one person. Debian seeks to collect the work of many and distribute the
benefits to many more. The application process should be no different.
If the the position of the DAM is too time consuming of a job, there should
be a panel of people who share this responsibility.
What bothers me most about the delays in the NM queue are their
capriciousness. I got through the process relatively quickly (about three
months or so, a fair time), but others have no such luck. And it is luck,
not [always] lack trying on their part.
The initial part of the process is fair. People queue up in cronological
order and have their applications selected by one of a pool of possible
application managers. AM's should adjust the number of open cases they're
handling to fit their available free time. If an AM becomes unable to
process an applicant within a reasonable reasonable response time (say
two weeks of overhead beyond delays the fault of the applicant) then the
applicant should be returned to the AM queue. It's not right that one AM
should hold up one applicant while others who applied months later are
getting through. As far as I know, there's no mechanism for an applicant
to be returned to the queue.
> You don't need to be a maintainer in order to help Debian.
Of course not. Even though I've only recently become a DD, I've been an
active unofficial member in the Debian community since late 1995.
But when such a person as myself decides to step forward and take on
additional responsibilities associated with being a DD, it doesn't make
sense to deny him or her that title for reasons of poor time management.
Don't underestimate the importance of being an official developer.
It's true that you can get packages sponsered and "help Debian" without
it, but it can have a large effect on morale. Being an official DD, gives
me a stronger tie to the project. It affects the way *I feel* about the
work that I do. To me, that's more important than an account or an
email address.
Eric
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