> I figured out the basics from the web site, but what exactly does being
> the group contact allow/require that person to do?
We've made some changes to the site to clarify the purpose and role of a
group contact. Please look at http://freenode.net/group_contacts.shtml
which should explain it better.
> The form makes a comment about the group contact having "the authority to
> act on their behalf". What acts are they going to be asked to perform on
> debian's behalf?
I talked to Rob and he agreed that the wording wasn't very clear. The form
has been moved to http://freenode.net/group_contact_form.shtml and the
wording has been changed from:
Provide as much information as you can, to help us research your
application to make sure you have the authority to act on their behalf.
to:
Provide as much information as you can, to help us research your
application to make sure your status as contact is sanctioned officially
by your project or group.
If you look at item #5 on http://freenode.net/group_contacts.shtml it should
help clarify as well:
5. _Needs no special level of authority._ Delegate whatever level of
authority seems appropriate to your contact. We won't necessarily expect
them to make policy decisions, just to find out the answers to any
questions that are raised.
The specific activities of the group contact would include things like
passing on changes to Debian project participant cloak lists, requesting
resets of project-owned channels in cases where the registered contacts have
disappeared, requesting ownership of channels that begin with "#debian-"
which might be considered important but which are controlled by other
groups, etc.
More generally, does the debian project yet have any commitment from
freenode? Channels entered on the form are "for informational purposes
only" so I assume not.
That wording was in place because we currently have no way built into the
servers to reserve channels beginning with "#debian-", for example. The
wording has been changed to:
# Channels. List the channels your group and/or project currently uses or
those channels you believe you'll need. You can list a channel name prefix
followed by a wildcard character, as in #foo-*, to request all channels
starting with #foo-. We'll make sure you are able to assert ownership of
those channels where the name is clearly associated with your project or
group, and eventually this function may be automated.
Hope this helps,
Mike
--
Mike Mattice - Debian Developer
mailto: mike@milliways.cx mattice@debian.org
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