Hi Joost,
On 2013-08-29 01:46, Joost van Baal-Ilić wrote:
Hi,
Thanks for your bugreport.
On Wed, Aug 28, 2013 at 09:58:25PM -0400, Filipus Klutiero wrote:
Package: debian-faq
Version: 5.0.2
Severity: normal
Section 13.1 reads:
The development of Debian is open to all, and new users with the right skills and/or the
willingness to learn are needed to maintain existing packages which have been
"orphaned" by their previous maintainers, to develop new packages, and to
provide user support.
The description of becoming a Debian developer can be found at the |New Member's
Corner <http://www.debian.org/devel/join/newmaint>| at the Debian web site.
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-faq/ch-contributing.en.html
There is a difference between developers and members. Members are (hopefully)
developers, but developers are not necessarily members. As explained on
http://www.debian.org/devel/join/ one doesn't need to be a member to develop.
Rather than that and mentioning specific ways to help, please just link to
http://www.debian.org/intro/help
Have just applied this patch:
-------------------------
Index: faqstatic.ent
===================================================================
--- faqstatic.ent (revision 10229)
+++ faqstatic.ent (working copy)
@@ -40,3 +40,4 @@
<!-- URL -->
<!entity debian-donation "http://www.debian.org/donations";>
+ <!entity debian-help "http://www.debian.org/intro/help";>
Index: contrib.sgml
===================================================================
--- contrib.sgml (revision 10229)
+++ contrib.sgml (working copy)
@@ -6,7 +6,8 @@
of time (to develop new packages, maintain existing packages,
or provide user support), resources (to mirror the FTP and WWW archives),
and money (to pay for new testbeds as well as hardware for the archives)
-can help the project.
+can help the project. See also
+<url name="How can you help Debian?" id="debian-help;">.
<sect id="contrib">How can I become a Debian software developer?
@@ -15,7 +16,7 @@
packages which have been "orphaned" by their previous maintainers, to
develop new packages, and to provide user support.
-<p>The description of becoming a Debian developer can be found at the
+<p>The description of becoming a Debian Developer can be found at the
<url name="New Member's Corner"
id="http://www.debian.org/devel/join/newmaint";>
at the Debian web site.
Thanks, that does solve the bug (but see below).
-------------------------
By the way, there are issues in 13.2 and 13.3 too. We now have an address
specifically for mirrors.
What exactly is wrong?
I reported issues with 13.3 in #721281.
As for 13.2:
1. I'm not under the impression that "mirrors are urgently needed" (anymore,
anyway).
2. It fails to mention major [non-financial] resources which can be
contributed, at least network connectivity (for servers) and hardware donations.
3. As previously mentioned, it offers a suboptimal contact point for mirrors.
I recommend to make the chapter even more a pure
redirect to /intro/help (and /donations for financial contributions).
You could be right here. Please state the exact errors and I'll be convinced
:) Just open a new bug with a more descriptive title of this more general
problem with the whole chapter.
It's not just about /errors/. Duplicating the information is likely to cause
each version to have lower quality. The discussion at
https://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2013/08/msg00053.html is what prompted
me to check the FAQ. One longstanding recruitment issue is the perception that
a Debian developer is a package maintainer and that maintainers need to be
members. With your fix, 13.1 won't explicitly reinforce this perception
anymore, but by keeping the emphasis on membership, it will keep reinforcing it
in practice. It's not just that membership is optional, but someone at the
stage of reading 13.1 would hardly be accepted anyway. It mentions user support
(not really a contribution to Debian strictly speaking), but no other way to
contribute time than packaging.
If the sentence should be kept anyway, please avoid the term "Debian Developer". We're
trying to move to the clearer "Debian member".
(Patches welcome...)
I can provide a patch, but that would make that chapter 2 paragraphs at most.
At that point, the pertinence of having a chapter for it could be questioned.
What would remain should probably be merged somewhere else, although I don't
see anywhere which would fit well. Possibilities:
1. Folding in the first chapter, but it makes more sense at the end IMO
2. Merging with "15 Changes expected in the next major release of Debian
<http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-faq/ch-nexttime.en.html>" and making the
section cover Debian's future in general, explaining that Debian's future depends on the
reader's involvement.
--
Filipus Klutiero
http://www.philippecloutier.com
