Re: delays in newmaint process
On Wed, Aug 18, 2004 at 07:07:00PM +0200, Thomas Viehmann wrote:
>
> In my book, the NM corner should explicitely ask prospective applicants
> to do (maintaining via sponsor, comaintaining, QA, whatever) stuff for
> at least 1/2 to 1 year before even applying and then tell applicants
> that they should expect another 1/2 to 1 year until they're accepted.
> At some point of time, I looked at stuff and was really surprised how
> many people get a "doesn't have a package in the archive" after they
> pass AM processing. Contributions to Debian in package maintenance are
> more or less only useful if they're long term, so if people spend 2
> years maintaining stuff before they join, that's a whole lot better than
> joining after 2 months being a case for MIA tracking after 2 years.
I completely agree (though I think there's no need to make an applicant
wait 1/2 to 1 year after applying). However, not everyone else does,
especially with the sponsorship part.
There's a wide variation in the thoroughness of sponsors. Some check
packages very thoroughly, and others barely give it a glance before
signing and uploading. It potentially provides a very easy access point
for those wishing to cause harm to Debian.
The NM process is not all about checking for technical competence. A
significant part of it is establishing trust with the applicant. In
fact, at the NM BOF at Debconf4, James indicated that this was the most
important part of the application to him.
Maybe it would be worthwhile to require any person that wishes to
contribute to Debian to pass the first 2 parts of NM (ID check and P&P)
before any contributions (particularly sponsored packages) would be
accepted. Then their application would automatically be put on hold
until they gain packaging experience or whatever.
Of course, just how readily you can establish trust based on a few
written answers is questionable.
> BTW: The length of the duration of Debian's application process isn't
> the only exceptional thing about it: The low rate of rejections
> certainly is extraordinary as well.
There's also an exceptionally low percentage that achieve AM approval...
--
You win again, gravity!
Reply to: