On 05/03/2012 05:05 PM, Stefano Rivera wrote: > Hi Andrew (2012.05.03_20:59:19_+0200) >> It's that over the past few cycles the team has dwindled to the point >> where it is hard to see what it even does. Much of this is of course >> due to many of MOTU's traditional responsibilities having been >> superseeded by newer institutions and norms: >> archive-reorg/package-sets, the Developer Membership Board, a stronger >> emphasis new packages going through Debian. A lot of this is "a good >> thing," but I feel that we've lost some of the social cohesion that >> the team used to bring to Ubuntu development. > I agree with that reasoning. I don't think we have much of a team > identity, rather than just being a bunch of people who care about > unseeded. > > It feels wrong to have to attract members by quilting them into helping > us, or make helping us a pre-requisite for them getting things done. > But I don't know how we should attract the type of people who enjoy > archive gardening. > > Personally, my catalyst for MOTUing was wanting to get a package into > Ubuntu in a hurry before lucid released. It went through Debian, but > wanted to make sure I could help it along as much as possible in Ubuntu, > as a freeze was imminent. So I sat down and learned how to do some MOTU > things, did a few merges, and discovered this was a whole lot of fun. > >> As Daniel mentioned, one of the most important contributions of this >> team has been bringing new contributors into the fold. > I like to think I spend a fair bit of time on this, and when it comes to > chatting, I think most of us do. When people make the effort to get > involved, we're quite good at this. The IRC channels are very friendly, > and the patch pilots (not that MOTU can claim credit here) are making > sure everything gets reviewed soonish. Sure, not everyone who does some > uploads sticks around, but I assume some people find it's not their > thing. > > I think the problem is that we aren't getting that many new faces. > Even when do get people saying they want to help, most of the time, we > don't have a good project for them. Without a personal motivation to get > a new package in or something like that, I think it's harder to find the > energy to get into it. > >> While things like per-package upload rights are great for getting >> contributors with a very narrow interest to help directly in Ubuntu, >> in the past I think there was some value to the social pressure to >> help with package outside your specific interest in order to get >> upload rights. > We (the DMB) do apply some pressure on PPU applicants, but by the time > they've got to us, it's too late the to persuade them that they should > become MOTUs. And yes, PPU serves a purpose, many of them probably > shouldn't become MOTUs. > >> * Maintaining packages that do not belong in any package-sets. >> * Providing guidance and training for new generalist developers. >> * Extended Quality Assurance functions. >> >> Are we living up to this mission? Does this still make sense for us? >> Has the MOTU simply out lived its usefulness? > I think that's a fairly good description of us these days. > >> I haven't found a blueprint for this yet. Does it exist yet, or should >> I file one? > Not as far as I know, please do. > > If we didn't have a MOTU session, it'd be a sign that it's all over. > Then again, a sad MOTU session isn't much better :/ > > SR > I hope to apply for MOTU during the Q-Cycle and my motivation is in fact to help with some of the "gardening" that Stefano speaks of along with getting more needs-packaging work done. I think it would also be interesting to mentor other individuals interested in the path to becoming a MOTU.
I'm still waiting for the right opportunity to apply but maybe this cycle maybe next... I guess I will know when the time is right but I would love to be apart of the group and helping it evolve. -- Ubuntu-motu mailing list Ubuntu-motu@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-motu