On Thu, Sep 29, 2011 at 11:42:37AM +0800, Paul Wise wrote:
> I'm of the opinion that adding more acronyms or changing existing ones
> just makes things more confusing.
I'm not sure I understand how s/Maintainer/Member/ would make things
more confusing.
To clarify: I'm not proposing an *announcement* or anything of the sort.
I'm just proposing to go through existing documentation (templates,
website, possibly wiki pages, etc.) and do s/Maintainer/Member/.
As far as I can tell the effect would be:
- for people applying to maintain packages -> they will get a feeling
that they are not only volunteering to do packaging work, but also to
become citizens of the Debian Project
- for people applying to do other activities -> they will no longer get
this break down of « why they are talking about maintainership here?
that is now what I'm up to »
- bonus point: we will get rid of extra places where, people applying
for non-packaging work get the impression that Debian Membership
status is only for people doing packaging work[*]
What kind of confusion would the above induce?
> We should either change nothing or drop all acronyms and be more
> descriptive in what we mean.
Well, experience shows that acronyms tend to raise spontaneously in
communities, especially in geek communities. So you generally have two
choices, let them arise spontaneously, or try to fix them upfront. The
latter option gives you a chance to choose acronyms that convey coherent
messages; the former does not.
Cheers.
[*] yes, I do realize the documentation have already been cleaned up
quite a bit, thanks to people on this list and on the Front Desk,
but the "New Maintainer" mention remains as a problem in the same
camp
--
Stefano Zacchiroli zack@{upsilon.cc,pps.jussieu.fr,debian.org} . o .
Maître de conférences ...... http://upsilon.cc/zack ...... . . o
Debian Project Leader ....... @zack on identi.ca ....... o o o
« the first rule of tautology club is the first rule of tautology club »
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature