Re: Your opinion on Debian Maintainer status
Hi,
Just throwing in my $0.02 as one of the ~200 DMs we have...
On Sat, Mar 16, 2013 at 4:37 PM, Arno Töll <arno@debian.org> wrote:
> although I'm deliberately ignoring all the good reasons you provided,
> JFTR, many people feel obliged to become DM these days before applying
> as a DD and even many DDs understand the DM concept as a probation to
> test potential NM candidates.
I think it's natural for the DM concept to have evolved into an
interim DD position, a stepping stone if you will. It's a great way
for DDs to give a certain amount of autonomy to the DMs they wish to
sponsor, and an opportunity for candidates to demonstrate their
technical skills and trustworthiness. It's also (at least from my
perspective) a lot easier and quicker to become a DM first instead of
applying directly through the NM process to become a DD, so that's
another point in favour of becoming a DM first and then applying to be
a DD only when you're sure of your commitment to the project.
> In fact, even the wiki says "Becoming a Debian Developer: You should be
> a Debian Maintainer for six months before applying to the Debian New
> Member Process" [1]. That's somewhat different to the original idea of
> the DM status and not really a direction we should endorse.
While I wouldn't make DM-ship an absolute requirement of the NM
process, I think that it's generally a good idea to encourage
contributors to become a DM first. My own experiences with it have
been positive, and it's always nice not to have to spam my sponsor
DD's mailbox everytime I'd like to upload something (that becomes
extremely tedious after a while, especially if one is maintaining a
few dozen packages).
Regards,
Vincent
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