Re: [nm-admin] Identification step in the current scheme (Re: Fear the new maintainer process)
On Tue, Aug 01, 2000 at 08:06:55PM +0200, Nils Lohner wrote:
> In message <[🔎] 20000801194659.C2325@ulysses.dhis.net>, Marcus Brinkmann writes:
> >On Tue, Aug 01, 2000 at 01:07:24PM -0400, Gopal Narayanan wrote:
> >> Membership is a privilege,
> >
> >The privilege to work, or what?
> >
> IMO the privilege to be trusted to contribute to Debian,
Thousands of people contribute to Debian without even knowing it. We still
use some upstream sotfware.
> represent it well
I am not sure. Only some delegates and the project leader may represent
Debian. Other people might try and if they do it well, get the backing of
the project. If they don't, I don't want to know what will happen. I can't
just say "foo, and I represent Debian".
> and to adhere to the social contract
I can do it anyway.
> and support the DFSG
I can do it all the time, and lots of people do without being Debian member.
> The trust goes to the fact that
> thousands of users rely on the packages that you upload not containing
> trojans and other code harmful to their systems.
They also rely on the upstream software, the CD resellers, the internet and
so on.
> This is my opinion, and if this attitude ever changes in Debian to
> something contrary, I don't think that I'll stick around long.
I am rather scared by a statement that effectively assumes that being part
of Debian is a "privilege" that needs to be protected by people who
probably want to abuse it.[1] The only privileges you have as a Debian
maintainer is: Upload packages with a name that already exists to
the archive (overriding the existing package with that name) and reading
debian-private.
Everything else I can also do through other means than Debian.
Thanks,
Marcus
[1] Because it furthers elitarism and doesn't further the idea that
volunteers effort is worth it. Please think about it: Saying Debian is a
"privilege" puts the value on the abstract Debian entity. I prefer to think
of the volunteers time and contribution as the value.
--
`Rhubarb is no Egyptian god.' Debian http://www.debian.org Check Key server
Marcus Brinkmann GNU http://www.gnu.org for public PGP Key
Marcus.Brinkmann@ruhr-uni-bochum.de, marcus@gnu.org PGP Key ID 36E7CD09
http://homepage.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/Marcus.Brinkmann/ brinkmd@debian.org
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