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Re: Bug#364896: make new maintainer corner clearer



On Thursday 27 April 2006 16:02, Marc 'HE' Brockschmidt wrote:
> "cobaco (aka Bart Cornelis)" <cobaco@linux.be> writes:
> > in the thread starting at [1] it became clear that the language on the
> > new-maintainer corner isn't clear enough. Attached is the proposed
> > rewording worked out in the subthread starting at [2].
>
> That won't work, starting with the first changed paragraph. 
> Some of your changes are a nice idea, but the process is called "New
> Maintainer Process" - you won't change this by changing a few lines in the
> NM corner. 

oops, that patch should be s/New Member/New Maintainer/ 
(my bad, that change was proposed and rejected in the subthread at [2], and
 shouldn't have been in the patch I send in)

> Please provide a patch without such controversial changes and 
> discuss the rest properly, not burried deep in a flame-fest on
> -project.

corrected patch attached, if there's anything controversial left in there 
could you point it out (as I'm not sure what that would be). 

> Interestingly enough, you haven't had the time to ask the person
> responsible for the current version of the NM corner directly...

the subthread where I proposed the rewording was CC'ed to 
debian-newmaint@l.d.o, I would've expected that to reach whoever is 
responsible for the NM-corner, appearently it didn't
-> sorry if I stepped on any toes, it was unintended

so who is responsible for the current version of NM corner?

> > [2] http://lists.debian.org/debian-i18n/2006/04/msg00088.html
-- 
Cheers, cobaco (aka Bart Cornelis)
  
1. Encrypted mail preferred (GPG KeyID: 0x86624ABB)
2. Plain-text mail recommended since I move html and double
    format mails to a low priority folder (they're mainly spam)
--- newmaint.wml.orig	2006-04-26 15:25:16.000000000 +0200
+++ newmaint.wml	2006-04-26 15:35:00.000000000 +0200
@@ -1,66 +1,64 @@
 #use wml::debian::template title="Debian New Maintainers' Corner" BARETITLE="true"
 
-<p>The Debian New Maintainer process is a series of required proceedings to
-become a Debian Developer. On these web pages, prospective Debian Developers
-can find all the details of applying, the process details, and how to track
-the progress of ongoing applications.</p>
-
-<p>Many people wish to contribute to Debian, though not all know that you
-<em>don't</em> need to be an official developer to do so.
-<a href="#Sponsor">Sponsors</a> can integrate work of non-developers and
-do so on a frequent basis. Some ways of contributing (translating,
-writing documentation and reporting bugs) can be done by everyone and
-don't require developer status.</p>
-
-<div class="quoteblock">
-  <div class="preimg"><img src="../../logos/officiallogo-nd-25.jpg"  alt=""
-  width="12" height="24"></div>
-
- <div>
-  <blockquote><p>
-   The Debian design process is open to ensure that the system is of the
-   highest quality and that it reflects the needs of the user community.
-  </p></blockquote>
-  <cite>
-   -- "The Debian Linux Manifesto"
-  </cite>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Debian Project is an open community and welcomes everyone who wants
-to use our distribution or even tries to help us. Nevertheless, appointing
-new developers is controlled by a very strict and thorough process: Every
-official Debian developer is associated with Debian, is allowed to vote
-about issues regarding the whole project, can log in on most systems
-that keep Debian running and has upload permissions for <em>all packages</em>.
-Giving this kind of access is accompanied by a great deal of trust, as we
-heavily depend on our secure infrastructure.
-<br />
-This is not meant to discourage people interested in becoming a registered
-developer, but it is meant to explain why we want people to contribute
-before applying and why the New Maintainer checks take so much time.
-<br />
-It's also important to understand that the New Maintainer process is part
-of Debian's Quality Assurance efforts. Prospective developers doing a lot
-of good work in a short time haven't shown that they are able to do this
-in the long term. Finding developers who have enough free time for
-their Debian tasks is complicated, so checking that Applicants are able
-to sustain their work is important. 
+<p>The Debian New Maintainer process, is the process of becoming an official 
+Debian Developer (DD). These webpages are the place were prospective Debian
+Developers can find all the details on applying to become a DD, the 
+different steps of the process, and how to track the process of their ongoing 
+application.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>Note:</em> the 'developer' in DD basically means 'someone involved with
+improving Debian in some way'. This might mean package maintainer, 
+translator, documentation writer, website maintainer, or ...)</p>
+
+<p>The first important point to make is that you do <em>NOT</em> need to be a
+DD in order to help improving Debian, in fact you should already have a track
+record of earlier contributions to Debian before you start the New Maintainer
+process.</p>
+	
+<p href="#non-maintainer-contributions">Debian is an open community and welcomes
+everyone who wants to use or help improve our distribution. As a non-developer
+you can:
+<ul>
+  <li>maintain packages through a <a href="#Sponsor">sponsor</a></li>
+  <li>create and/or review translations</li>
+  <li>create or improve documentation</li>
+  <li><a href="../website">help maintain the website</a></li>
+  <li>help with handling bugs (by providing patches, filing good bugs, 
+  confirming the existence of the bug, finding ways to reproduce the problem,
+  ...)</li>
+  <li>being an active member of a packaging team (e.g. debian-qt-kde or 
+  debian-gnome) </li>
+  <li>being an active member of a subproject (e.g. debian-installer, or 
+  debian-desktop)</li>
+  <li>...</li>
+</ul>
 </p>
+        
+<p>It's important to understand that the New Maintainer process is part of 
+Debian's Quality Assurance efforts. Finding developers with enough free time
+for their Debian tasks is complicated so checking that applicants are able to
+sustain their work, and do it well, is important. Hence the requirement that
+prospective developers have been actively involved in Debian for some time 
+already. </p>
 
-<p>
-To ease the process, it is important to already be familiar with Debian,
-so we require that prospective developers have already contributed &ndash; in
-the form of translations, documentation, sending patches or package
-maintenance.
-<br />
-Non-Developers can maintain one or more packages for Debian through
-a <a href="#Sponsor">sponsor</a>. As sponsors check the packages they
-want to upload, common problems are easily noticed and can be corrected
-before ending up in the real archive. The sponsoring process also helps
-to understand Debian's procedures and is a kind of mentoring program.
+<p href="#developer-priveleges">Every Debian Developer:
+<ul>
+  <li>is associated with Debian.</li>
+  <li>is allowed to vote about issues regarding the whole project.</li>
+  <li>can log in on most systems that keep Debian running.</li>
+  <li>has upload permissions for <em>all</em> packages.</li>
+  <li>has access to the debian-private mailing list</li>
+</ul>	
 </p>
 
+<p>In other words becoming a Debian Developer grants you several important 
+privileges regarding infrastructure the project heavily depends on. Obviously
+this requires a great deal of trust for and commitment by the applicant.</p>
+	
+<p>Consequently the whole NM process is very strict and thorough. This is not 
+meant to discourage people interested in becoming a registered developer,
+but it does explain why the New Maintainer process takes so much time.</p>
+
 <p>Please read the <a href="#Glossary">glossary definitions</a> before
 reading the rest of the pages.
 

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