Re: RFS: ripit (updated package)
On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 17:16, Adeodato Simó <dato@net.com.org.es> wrote:
> Neil,
>
> I am writing to let you and the list and all sponsorees who may be
> reading this thread know that I don’t agree with most of what you’re
> saying, and that I don’t like the tone in which you are writing your
> thoughts, and that I think you are a harmful influence regarding these
> matters in particular.
>
> You are treating sponsorees as if you’re doing a grand favour to them,
> when (in my opinion) they’re just doing us an equally sized favour by
> spending their time in contributing to our project and wanting to learn
> to do it better. It is true that, sadly, I don’t get to do much real
> mentoring myself nowadays (and note how I use the word “mentoring”
> instead of “sponsoring”), and that’s a pity, because together with being
> AM, they are two of the most important tasks in Debian, because in their
> hands lies Debian’s future.
>
> Recently, an old sponsoree of mine who became DM mailed me to ask some
> questions regarding library packaging. I found it most pleasing to write
> a very detailed mail to him tailored to his specific questions, rather
> than telling him “Go read your answers scattered in these three
> documents and mailing list threads”. I was most glad for the opportunity
> to make a difference in his learning process, and felt proud in
> contributing if only a teensy bit in somebody excelling in their future
> work as a developer.
>
> If you, Neil, don’t find it in you to see it that way or, even worse,
> think sponsorees should be spending their time striving to please you
> and your rules, and think it’s okay to go patronizing them around, then
> you should consider stopping. Or, at least, you should be aware that
> some of us (or at least me) who lurk in this list, are not in agreement
> at all with you.
>
> I do realize there are way more requests on this list than people
> willing to sponsor, and I have no magic solution to that. I only know
> that this thread deeply disturbed me, and I decided to let that be
> known.
(as almost always) I cannot agree more with dato's thoughts.
I'm in a busy period so I stopped almost completely sponsoring, but I
try to help in IRC and here, when possible.
This is the very minimum respect I feel I NEED to give back to people
that dedicate their time to let debian be a better distribution, and
desire to see their work acknowledged and receive a simple "thank
you".
I strongly think that even sponsoring a single package let the
sponsoree be really happy for the work he did and was accepted as
valuable. And also the user base would be happy to see an improved
package (with bugs fixed, new features and so) and also we developers
should be thankful for the time the guy dedicate to learn how to do
packaging in the Debian way and apply to the current package.
As a side note: I think Neil wrote his sponsorship notes with the only
goal to avoid sponsorship at all (as I experienced in the past
directly).
New comers maintainers: *thanks for your work*, please go on and do more! :)
Cheers,
--
Sandro Tosi (aka morph, morpheus, matrixhasu)
My website: http://matrixhasu.altervista.org/
Me at Debian: http://wiki.debian.org/SandroTosi
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