Re: sponsor wanted
On Thu, Jun 20, 2002 at 03:08:19PM +0200, Florent Rougon wrote:
> ,----
> | Advocate:
> | An existing Debian developer who recommends an Applicant. An Applicant
> | can only go through the NM process after an Advocate has verified his
> | application. The Sponsor of an Applicant often acts as his Advocate once
> | he is satisfied with the Applicant's skills.
> `----
>
> Ah, "often". Same as the "may" we already talked about.
> At least, this suggests that one "often" finds a sponsor before an
> advocate (since the sponsor acts as the advocate), so one "often" has a
> sponsor before entering the NM queue (since having an advocate is a
> prerequesite to entering it, as shown above).
You don't have to actually upload the package before advocating the new
maintainer. You can look over the package, then tell the NM that you'll
advocate him and get him to enter the NM queue, then upload the package.
> So, Oohara Yuuma's policy not to "sponsor anyone who is not in the NM
> queue or who doesn't have a GPG key signed by a Debian developer" is not
> what is to be called usual developer practice, IMHO.
Oohara Yuuma's policy is much the same as mine. It's useful because,
when somebody enters the NM queue, it suggests that they're prepared to
show a certain level of commitment. I am quite happy to look over
somebody's package before they enter the NM queue and say that I'll
sponsor them once they do; I'm not prepared any more to sponsor somebody
if they aren't prepared to say that they'll make the effort to become a
full-fledged maintainer. I've been bitten in the past by sponsoring
someone who later disappeared, so that I end up being in practice
responsible for a package in the archive that I don't have much interest
in myself.
I usually put this as something like "I won't actually upload the
packages until you're in the NM queue, but I can look things over and
give you advice before then".
The process doesn't have to be linear. You can find someone who's
prepared to sponsor you in the future and advocate you now without them
necessarily having to actively sponsor you (upload your packages) right
now.
> Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org> wrote:
> > I'd normally expect people to be looking for sponsorship at around the
> > same time as they're entering the NM queue.
>
> I think the docs are at least unclear on the fact that you might want to
> apply to nm.d.o in order to find a sponsor, given some of the
> developers' criteria to sponsor someone.
Well, developers with this (IMHO sensible) criterion will probably not
be shy about saying so, and I think people should be looking for an
interested developer to help them before applying to the NM queue; this
developer can then, before uploading, say when he's prepared to advocate
the new maintainer.
The documentation probably ought to be clarified somehow to spell this
out, I suppose. Because the process really should involve some
back-and-forth between the NM and a mentor (that's the whole point of
the advocate), it's difficult to explain. Perhaps it would be better to
say something like:
Advocate:
An existing Debian developer who recommends an Applicant. An
Applicant can only go through the NM process after an Advocate has
verified his application.
An interested developer will often mentor a new Applicant, and act
as his Advocate once he is satisfied with his skills. Many
developers will prefer the Applicant to be in the NM queue before
actually acting as a Sponsor and uploading packages on his behalf,
but will inspect packages and offer advice before then.
--
Colin Watson [cjwatson@flatline.org.uk]
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