Re: List/IRC climate issues
Hello everyone,
Well, for what it's worth, I signed up to start the NM process yesterday.
I'm feeling more daunted about it now than I was before that, largely
because of reading the things people on this list have to say. Maybe
there is reason to be scared?
Anyway, this is where I'm at, for people who are interested:
- I asked someone I already knew to sponsor me. It is helpful to
already know someone, though I would guess that plenty of people here
do, through irc or whatever, even if they haven't met someone in person.
My sponsor knows that I don't know everything I need to know to be a
maintainer, but he also knows I'm able to learn that stuff, and
(important!) that I am really interested in learning that stuff, and
that I'm able/willing to put effort into volunteer work. I guess those
are obvious criteria.
- I've chosen a couple of really simple things to package. I chose
simple things because I didn't want to make it any harder than it has to
be, but I chose things that I like enough to use myself (they are cute
kde panel applets). In the future I want to learn to package some
bigger and harder things that I would like to see in debian, but that
can wait until I have more experience.
- I've worked out how to package these things, mainly, with help from my
sponsor, who doesn't seem to mind me asking questions. I guess having a
friendly sponsor is really important, though since people keep telling
me how friendly and helpful most debian people really are, I guess that
most who are willing to sponsor someone would be helpful with this.
- One of my packages was uploaded yesterday. It is waiting to get
processed as a new package. Then I signed up for NM. My other package
turns out to be harder to build, but my sponsor is being helpful and
it's nearly fixed now, and should get uploaded today.
- My sponsor has also agreed to advocate me, but he hasn't actually done
that yet (ie he hasn't clicked on the button or whatever he has to do).
Presumably he doesn't think I'm quite ready, or he wants at least to
wait until my packages are into the archive. That's fine with me. I'm
sure he'll tell me if he thinks there is a real problem.
It's true that I don't know everything I'm going to need to know (yet!)
though I am reasonably conversant with things like the social contract
and slabs of policy. What I do know is that I am perfectly capable of
learning, and of asking people to help when I don't understand something
from the documentation. My technical skills are improving fast, as I
work out how to do things and get more practise.
I will keep the debian-women list posted with how I go with this, if you
like. I'll say if it is scary or hard or uncomfortable or whatever
(also if it isn't). So far it isn't scary :) Actually, I'm pleased
about it. This is something I've been wanting/meaning to do for awhile,
and I'm glad to be getting my act together and doing it. And I'm
excited about the new things I'm learning now and will keep learning -
that's always fun.
So, anyone want to join me on this NM queue thing? We can always
while the waiting time (months!) away by comparing notes and scary
stories ;)
Helen.
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