> Just my two cents for the "hot" discussion about tasks and skills. I am ready > for blaming from everybody. > > In my opinion *every* applicant before he/she become a maintaner should have > at least *one* sponsored package in the distribution (adopted or new). > > The whole NM process looks more like a theoretical exam than practical. It > doesn't matter how excellent an applicant may describe in his/her own words a > difference between free beer and free software or how many signatures from > Debian maintaners he/she has until he/she hasn't more than a fundamental > knowledge about Debian packaging. > > Of course, it may cause the NM process will take more time for some > applicants but it doesn't matter until we care about a *quality* also and we > care not only about a *quantity*. If some applicants want to join Debian for > doing other job than packaging then it doesn't matter if they have accounts > or haven't (at least until they try to upload something some day). > > That's obviously the AM and the sponsor should be different persons if we > care also about more objective (and more democratic) NM process. Looking for > sponsors is not so difficult until an applicant has enough motivations and > patience for doing Debian work. Both these "features" are also very useful in > this case.
I am applying to become a Debian maintainer. At the moment, I am not interested in packaging anything. Period. I do not have the time and would rather exert myself elsewhere. Thus, should I not be made a Debian maintainer? Will you recommend my rejection? There is a lot more about debian then making packages. There is documentation, internationalization and debian internal projects such as dpkg, apt, the installer, boot floppies and others. These take more than a single person to code up and a list ends up as the maintainer of the resulting packages. How about the maintenance of the servers, is that not a worthy job? Or perhaps PR? The webpage? And finally, how about the ports? Are the Debian/BSD port or the Debian/Hurd port not in need of Debian people? The thing that bothers me the _most_ is that all of the tasks that I have listed take _way_ more effort than maintaining some package of the packages in our archive: many are updated a few times a year, if that. > Thanks, Thank you. If you are still interested in recommending my rejection, I encourage you to do. -Neal -- Neal H Walfield University of Massachusetts at Lowell [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
