Hi, On Tue, May 13, 2003 at 09:48:49AM -0500, Luca - De Whiskey's - De Vitis wrote: > On Tue, May 13, 2003 at 12:07:12PM +0200, Emile van Bergen wrote: > [...] > > Regardless, I actually think it's a wonderful scaleability measure > > to provide some infrastructure that allows DDs to delegate some of > > the packaging work to NMs in the queue, who can prove that they are > > worth their salt, or to non-DDs, who can contribute to the project > > in a controlled manner that way. > > This is conceptually wrong: if a DD wishes to co-maintain his package, > Debian offers alioth.d.o which is already up and running; if he wishes > to delegate... who wishes to delegate the maintainership of a > package? I'd rather say that a DD sponsors other non-DD contributions. That's not mutually exclusive. Also, you ask who would ever wish to delegate the maintainership of a package. I think the answer is every DD who has filed a RFA on a package. There may be DDs who rather see another DD adopt the package, but I imagine that most will rather see a NM or non-DD adopt it, possibly sponsored by himself if he has some time remaining for this package, than seeing it actually orphaned. This is a different, looser form of delegation than working together on Alioth on it. > There is a plenty of ways a NM can contribute/join Debian: packaging > is only the simpliest. Try to take some job or a package from the QA, > a task from http://www.debian.org/devel/todo/ or anything that can > came out from the "Developer's corner" section on the main site. > Non-DDs contributing in this way do not help Debian: have you ever > read of our lacks of packages? You don't, because we haven't. I know. However, there are *existing* packages for which DDs don't always have enough time or interest. If you think that isn't true, then what are all those orphaned packages doing on WNPP? > > I think there is a niche for such non-DD contributors. > > No there is not. The fact is that if one wants to contribute Debian, > that is to say help the DDs, he should work in those fields Debian > needs help. I know. But because of the packages up for adoption, and the orphaned packages, I was under the impression that the DDs need help with those packages. If that's not the case, why are those orphaned packages not removed outright? > > Allowing DDs to take advantage of the work of lesser gods, whenever that > > is practical and useful, seems a good thing for all parties concerned. > > that's a pity... there is no one here who feels to be a god: unfortunately, > there are many outside here that think to be... looser gods. It's just a phrase. I haven't a clue what looser gods are, BTW. > Finally, i do not understand why you quoted my mail... > I was only objecting with this sentence: > > But becoming a DD is a long and painful way. Many developers just want > to make their software available to Debian users but not become DDs. > They are invited to upload their packages here and tell other users > about this server. Well, I didn't see why you would object to the second sentence. If somebody's able to maintain a package through a sponsor well, he may still have no desire to become a DD. I agree that the very last sentence is a little questionable; this function may already be provided by apt-get.org. However, from the original announcement I understood that the primary target audience is not the users, but potential sponsors, so that the packages may be (or remain, in the orphaned case) part of Debian -- if the sponsoring DDs think they are worthwhile and the packager did a good job that is. From the original announcement at http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2003/debian-devel-200305/msg00756.html "This project is a benefit for maintainers (non-DDs) and their sponsors (DDs). Maintainers are able to upload packagages to mentors.debian.net and point their sponsors to this server. Sponsors can download and test this packages by downloading them after expansion their sources.list[2]." > If you ask me what i think about mentors.debian.net i'd say we do not > need such a service: i would have made any contributor to use alioth > (register, work on your favorite package and release it). A better > service would have been to create a place to coordinate people looking > for sponsorship with those willing to offer it. Well, mentors.debian.net exists, whereas the one you're describing does not, so apparently people felt more need for the former. Cheers, Emile. -- E-Advies - Emile van Bergen emile@e-advies.nl tel. +31 (0)70 3906153 http://www.e-advies.nl
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