Re: on the "M" of "NM"
Thomas Hochstein <thh@inter.net> writes:
> Thomas Goirand schrieb:
>
>> On 09/29/2011 04:24 PM, Stefano Zacchiroli wrote:
>>> What kind of confusion would the above induce?
>>
>> You may think DM means DM when it really means DM,
>> but no, a DM is a DM, not a DM.
>>
>> Isn't the above confusing? :)
>
> It is, but less than currently.
>
> AFAIS (and with some simplification), there are - among others -
> "Debian Developers" (as full members of the project) and "Debian
> Maintainers" (limited to specific uploading rights).
>
> To become a "Debain Maintainer", you just send your application to
> this list. But to become a "Debian Developer", you have to go through
> the "New Maintainer (!)" process. That doesn't make any sense at all
> and is extremely confusing.
To the point that I accidently applied to become a developer when I
meant to apply to become a maintainer.
In addition, the main wiki page for Debian [1] has a link to "Debian
Development", which then mentions "Debian developer" and "New
Maintainer's Guide", but _not_ "Debian Maintainer". The "New
Maintainer's Guide" also does not mention Debian Maintainer.
There is a wiki page for Debian Maintainer [2], but I don't see how to get
to it without searching for it (which presumes knowing it about it already).
Finally, the Debian developer's reference chapter 3 [3] uses "maintainer"
and "developer" synonymously; it was clearly written before Debian
Maintainer was established.
So if we simply substitute "Member" for "Maintainer", we will have two
levels of members; Debian Developers and Debian Members. Using "member"
to label a particular level of membership is confusing.
The developers reference will then use "developer" and "member"
synonymously.
And to become a Debian Developer, we will follow the New Member process,
while to become a Debian Member, we will follow some other unnamed
process.
I don't see how that's an improvement.
None of the web documents mention "non-uploading Developers"; that's only
in emails.
The confusion comes from the lack of readily accessible, clear,
consistent documentation. The terms themselves are not bad as they are
(except for the "new maintainer" process, but that should be easy to fix).
[1] http://wiki.debian.org/FrontPage
[2] http://wiki.debian.org/DebianMaintainer
[3] http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/developers-reference/developer-duties
--
-- Stephe
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