Am Mon, Dec 02, 2024 at 06:15:22PM -0700 schrieb Soren Stoutner:
>
> I think one of the best things we could do to attract new contributors, and
> to
> encourage those who are currently Sponsored Maintainers to become Debian
> Maintainers, and those who are current Debian Maintainers to become Debian
> Developers would be to create an official DPL Mentors Delegation. This would
> build on the excellent work Phil Wyett is currently doing as the unofficial
> Mentors Triage.
Speaking both with and without my DPL hat, I don't think a delegation is
necessary. Instead, I would prefer to establish a way to direct sponsees
to the appropriate team for their package. From my experience, the teams
I work with are quite effective at sponsoring packages that fit their
scope and are maintained within the team's Git repository. I believe
that ensuring a package fits properly into a team is a key prerequisite
for a good sponsor-sponsee relationship.
When I was regularly monitoring ITPs, I noticed that newcomers often
struggle to "find friends" (i.e., sponsors). In my opinion, what we need
is someone to guide sponsees to the appropriate team, Salsa group, or
similar space. This role doesn't require a delegation since it doesn't
involve authority, but rather a deep understanding of Debian's structure
and workflows.
The downside of easing sponsorship without requiring team integration is
that we currently have a significant number of packages maintained by
individuals without a @debian.org address, many of which are slowly
bit-rotting. It's possible that these maintainers were unable to find
sponsors for subsequent uploads. However, the fact that I've filed
numerous ITS bugs for such packages without receiving any response
suggests that many maintainers have simply lost interest. I strongly
support simplifying the process to gain better oversight and control of
these packages, which is currently hindered by our strict interpretation
of package maintainer ownership.
> Too many contributors prepare a Debian package, submit it to Mentors, and
> then
> never have it reviewed and sponsored by a Debian Developer. This can be
> highly demotivating for the contributor.
100% agreed.
> I think that having a team of Debian
> Developers dedicated to reviewing every package submitted to Mentors would do
> more to encourage more contributions to Debian, and more people becoming
> Debian Maintainers and Debian Developers, than anything else I could name.
As always: We need volunteers to do this and I agree that this would be
helpful.
Kind regards
Andreas.
--
https://fam-tille.de
