scripsit Neil Williams: > The bare RFS template is inadequate 95% of the time - it is not a > fault of the template, it is a problem with the maintainer not > "filling in the gaps" with sufficient detail. This applies to most RFS > emails, it's not specific to any one maintainer. _This_ is a subject worth discussing. How can we, perhaps, improve the template or the documentation on mentors.d.n so that we can improve the `hit rate', as it were. I would suggest (and the number of RFSes which you find inadequate seems to support this idea) that the instructions on the Web site do not go far enough in explaining what is needed. A first-time user could very well assume, I believe, that what is expected is to fill the blanks in the RFS template and the rest is self-explanatory. For example, _I_ assumed that since the page on the upload clearly showed `Closes: #xxxxxx', I didn't need to mention that in the RFS. If convention is that one _should_ do so, we would save everyone a lot of time if the template included that. If packages formerly but not currently in unstable are a special case (and I think they are), then having some guidelines on how to handle them would be very helpful. Rather than getting frustrated about expectations not being met, why don't we talk about how we can communicate those expectations more clearly so nobody gets to be disappointed, aggravated, irritated, or generally misanthropic. I did not see your personal guidelines for sponsorship until well after our initial encounter, as it is not very prominent on the site. Since you read so many RFSes, Neil, could you give us a list of, say, your top-ten pet peeves about things would-be sponsees screw up? (Without naming names, in the interest of keeping temperatures under flashpoint *grin*). Then we could talk about what we can do to encourage future RFS submitters _not_ to make the same mistakes. -- Thanasis Kinias Doctoral Candidate, Department of History, and Instructor, Professional Enhancement Programs Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, U.S.A. . Je ne viens d'aucun pays, d'aucune cité, d'aucune tribu. Je suis fils de la route, ma patrie est caravane, et ma vie la plus inattendue des traversées. -- Amin Maalouf, _Léon l'Africain_
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature