On Mon 2017-08-07 20:10:03 +0100, Jonathan Wiltshire wrote:
> Working in Debian for the long haul is very much *not* like taking an
> exam, so I don't think it's helpful to treat this part of the process
> as a simple factual evaluation.
Daniel, i appreciate that you're trying to streamline the process and
improve it, and i agree that we should take out needless obstacles. but
fwiw, i think i share Jonathan's view here.
My own NM process was far longer than it needed to be, including a
multi-year fallow that wasn't really necessary and was kinda
demotivating. i would have appreciated some obstacle-clearing.
That said, i would have been really impoverished by doing a single-day
class with an exam. Once i got the process restarted, my AM (hi,
Patrick Schoenfeld!) had a patient and incisive conversation with me
over the course of several months. He asked me probing questions, made
me think, and showed me how he figured things out in debian when he
wasn't sure. We disagreed on some things, civilly, and in short i
learned a lot and came away a better community member than i would have
otherwise been.
That kind of sustained positive engagement with newcomers (or multi-with
year non-DD contributors, as it was in my case) is what we need, more
than a single class certificate-expediting process.
How about some classes in mentoring and package sponsorship best
praactices at a future debconf?
--dkg
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