On 07/02/2009 09:07 PM, Tiago Bortoletto Vaz wrote: > I just bad expressed myself here. I meant questions I would *only* be able to > say something about if I did a research. In other words, I think it's important > to give the AM my previous/current experiences, even if it's next to zero. ah, definitely agreed. > Imagine I've written in my first NM email I want to become a DD because I want > to package libraries. Then I answer in a good way all the questions regarding > libraries - by doing some research, because I've never did it before. So, don't > you think is missing something here? I see what you're saying: we're missing questions about past and current experience with specific systems within debian. > For someone who wants to become a DD > mainly to work in i18n infrastrucure, it would be ok just knowing the nice > steps for packaging libraries. For prospective library packagers, it's not > enough IMO. Being a DD is currently a lifetime post (modulo retiring and MIA), and there are a lot of sharp edges you can run into unexpectedly over that time. Getting gently prodded about obscure areas you *don't* plan to work in directly can be helpful to keep in mind the bigger ecosystem in which a DD operates. At the same time, debian is so big that we can't realistically ask every DD to understand nuances about every corner of the system (and the systems will change after they get out of NM anyway). i dunno the right way to strike this balance, other than to use the NM process to see how the applicant responds to questions about a few systems that they don't already know something about, in the hopes that they can demonstrate (or be coached through) good techniques for learning, asking for help, and assimilating new information. > I didn't see anyone proposing a pop quiz for NM process in this list. True, but I have seen people referring to a "checklist", which could be interpreted as something along these lines. I don't think that's how most folks mean it, but i wanted to make the distinction clear. > I'm trying to propose exactly the opposite. An AM gets more helpful information > if the the applicant is *also* asked for his/her experiences on a given subject > rather than *only* being asked for something like "Explain to me what a foo > is". You get a kind of copy/paste reply, even with other words. Btw, it's good > to see many questions have already a better format in the current NM. Yes, definitely agreed! I'd even suggest that something like "What is your experience in the following areas?" be made an explicit step that happens *before* P&P and T&S (maybe before AM assignment?), so that people considering NM see that as the intial step, same as getting their advocate lined up and their OpenPGP key signed. Doing that self-directed skills-inventory, along with answering a "what do you want to work on in debian that you aren't already?" question would be useful for two reasons: * it would help applicants to think about the process and what they want to get out of it, and * it would make the initial DAM reviewing job (before AM assigment) much simpler, reducing waiting at that stage of the process. I'd be curious what other people think about this. --dkg
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature