On 08/08/13 at 17:23 -0400, Filipus Klutiero wrote: > Lucas Nussbaum wrote: > >Hi, > > > >Here is a report on the survey of new contributors I initiated a few weeks > >ago[1]. > > Thank you Lucas, and thanks to respondents. > > >[...] > > > > > >> Q1: Can you (briefly) introduce yourself? What motivated you to > >> start contributing to Debian? What are you (trying to) contribute > >> to in Debian? > >> > >> Q2: What are your reasons for starting to contribute to Debian *now*? Why > >> didn't you start before? :) > > > >| Those two questions being quite open, it is difficult to draw any > >statistics > >| from the answers. However, if I try to draw a typical picture of the new > >| contributor, he/she is a long time Debian user who started contributing to > >| "scratch an itch": package something s/he developed, depend on in its day > >| job, etc. Often, they don't start contributing earlier because everything > >| looks fine (everything they need is packaged and seems properly > >maintained). > >| However, some (a minority) of new contributors are simply willing to give > >| back, without any (apparent) specific interest in what they are working on. > >| > >[...] > > > >So, trying to summarize. (everything below is my personal opinion) > >As Debian, we usually like people who will join our teams and contribute to > >our > >usual team duties. But most new contributors are interested in maintaining a > >specific package (usually not yet in Debian). If they fail at this first > >step, > >they are likely to be lost for Debian. Unfortunately, we suck at sponsoring > >"random" packages. Nice loop... > > > Could you precise the proportions here? How many respondents were > interested in maintaining a specific package? And how many want to > maintain a specific package which is not in Debian?
As this was not asked directly, I've re-read through answers and tried to categorize new contributors. 17/37 give an indication that they were primarly motivated by contributing to a specific piece of software (something they are upstream for, rely on in their day job, etc.) 10/37 give an indication that they are primarly motivated by contributing to Debian, with no pre-defined very-specific area of contribution 10/37 give no indication in either direction > And not just for you, but didn't we recently have an analysis of > contributors collaboration in packaging, with statistics on the > proportion of team-maintained vs private packages? http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/blog/?p=751 > > > >Actionable items: > >[...] > >- have a more introductory documentation to BTS usage > > ...or just ease ITS contributions. ITS? Lucas -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-project-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20130809075318.ga16...@xanadu.blop.info