On 15.02.2012 21:41, Steven Tucker wrote:
Hi all,
Hello Steven!
I would like to make comment on the Mentoring system, and hopefully I
will convey it, and be interpreted in the best possible spirit.
I am glad Kyle has now had an offer to be mentored and by no means
wish to stop this or interfere in anyway, however I felt quite
deflated when I read the offer to mentor him, and I imagine others
would too, so I feel obligated to comment.
There is a list on the wiki of people looking for mentors
https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Becoming_a_Mageia_Packager#Packaging_apprentice_candidates
Kyle has indeed added his name to the list, however there are 5 people
on the list before him, I have been on that list since mid January,
and there is someone who has been waiting since late November.
All things being equal, shouldn't preference be given to the top
(longest waiting) of the list?
Is there a reason why 5 people get overlooked, and someone who has
been waiting 2 days is given a chance?
There are lot kinds of packages in Mageia (C++, documentation, Java,
Gnome, KDE, web, kernel, assembler, Perl, Haskell, XFCE4, Ruby, Ocaml,
...) and usually mentors take these apprentice candidates, where there
is a common field of shared interests.
If we are not as committed/capable/available/desirable can someone
please let us know?
Don't think like that please! As wiki says, the most important is
enthusiasm! I have seen that even qualified computer scientists cannot
finish the mentoring process due to lack of enthusiasm (they need to
dedicate their free time to the project).
I have already packaged a program I wrote and want added to Mageia,
and I wait patiently for a Mentor, just to find the line has been cut.
Do I need to constantly have IRC on to be chosen?
Of course not! It's individual flavour of communication, some people
prefer IRC, some e-mails, some other ways to communicate.
is there some unwritten rules about how to gain a mentor? If so please
let me know so I can do these things.
There is probably one thing "unwritten", just trying to ping developers
helps in finding. Kyle was asking several times on IRC for mentor.
I hope this is taken constructively, I don't wish for the mentoring
offer to Kyle to be withdrawn, he sounds like he will be an asset to
the packaging team, I do think though that you should consider the
list first before making offers. If a person is not suitable, tell
them so they can move on, perhaps package for another distro,
whatever. Don't just leave them there to rot.
The truth is simple, we are short of packagers and therefore mentors.
Everybody with enthusiasm (even without great Unix skills) is welcome.
I have mostly finished my project of the consolidation of spell-checkers
in Mga, that costed hundreds of commits, and now I feel ready to start
helping in the mentoring process.
I have proposed to you and to Edward (edge226) to teach you packaging.
To be clear, after reading your "interests / skills / comments", I
decided that I can be a better mentor for you, according to the field of
interest.
Tuxta
Regards and welcome!
Kamil
