Michael, On Mon, Sep 27, 2004 at 03:01:02PM -0400, Michael MacFadden wrote: > I posted several messages to this list earlier this month about getting > my package sponsored. Lots of people gave me great suggestions on how > to improve the packing and other general ideas. However no one seemed > interested in uploading the package. I have been monitoring this for > for a month now and it looks like other people might be having a similar > experience. Is there a better resource for actually finding some one to > upload a package.
I'm not likely to be sponsoring many package uploads at all these days, except for specific software I already use and need, but I offer you my observations as they may be applicable to others' motives as well in deciding what to sponsor or not sponsor. Frankly, my initial reaction to your RFS was one of repulsion, for several reasons. It's not universally agreed that web apps should be packaged. Packaging of web apps tends to be coarser than that of other applications, due to poor or non-existent virtual host support; poor integration with all but a handful of available webservers; and poor separation of code from configuration in web apps, resulting in excessive numbers of "config files". Some of these problems can be fixed by developing more mature infrastructure for webapps in Debian; others require the webapps themselves to mature. Either way, it's a turn-off for many developers to know the sponsored package would never be up to normal standards of package quality. You also described this package as a "streaming media server": > Package: streamline > Architecture: all > Depends: apache | apache-ssl | apache-perl | apache2, php4 | php4-cgi | > libapache2-mod-php4 > Suggests: php4-mysql, php4-pqsql > Description: a web-based streaming media server written in php4 > Streamline is an web-base on-demand streaming media server. It allows > users remotely browse their media library and choose what media they > would like to stream. Streamline has a robust web-base administrative > interface which allows users to configure every aspect of the server. > Streamline supports visual themes which allow users to customize the > server to match the scheme of their existing web site. In my mind, the term "streaming media server" refers to tools such as HelixServer and QTSS. HTTP is not a streaming media protocol. Trying to implement a streaming media protocol on top of HTTP is broken; trying to implement a streaming media protocol on top of HTTP *in PHP* smacks of dementia. Perhaps, if this is not what you had in mind, the description could be changed to not give this impression and frighten off sponsors. I don't know if these comments will actually help you find a sponsor, but I hope they at least give you some insight into why you haven't found one so far. Cheers, -- Steve Langasek postmodern programmer
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