Jon Portnoy
Tue, 06 Jan 2004 00:57:58 -0800
On Mon, Jan 05, 2004 at 11:39:01PM -0800, Robert Cole wrote: > Hmm so I guess the message did go through... Sorry for the dupe going through. > Got a rejected msg. > > How is one suppose to "prove" themselves if they aren't allowed to contribute? > Whoa, there must be a major misunderstanding here. Nobody said you aren't allowed to contribute. What you aren't allowed to have is official developer status without having proven yourself. See below. > I've seen several things sit in bugs.gentoo.org with working ebuilds attached > from other "unapproved" devs that never make it. > > So from what I've seen: > Volunteer + Ebuild + Willingness to maintain = rejection Okay, let me explain a little bit about how the recruitment process works. A few cases: One, a developer sponsors someone as a new developer. They offer to act as mentor throughout the training period and beyond, and they're personally responsible for that developer. This is the usual case. Two, a high-profile package is unmaintained and recruiters search for people with a history of contributions who have shown they can handle it and are trustworthy. Three, someone has a history of contributions, especially on Bugzilla, and has shown they can do high-quality, reliable work. I _won't_ just take someone at their word that they're capable of doing something. Would you put somebody with a blank resume in a critical position? Additionally, there are nearly 6,000 individual packages in the tree at last count. Most of these are relatively trivial; they just aren't critical applications and do not require their own developer. For example, if you wanted to maintain one or two image viewers, the benefits (a maintainer for two low profile packages that likely do not require very much attention) do not outweigh the risks (another developer who's a potential security risk) in my view. You would be cautious too if there were an estimated quarter of a million systems at stake. Does any of this mean that people are shut out from contributing? Not at all. -- Jon Portnoy avenj/irc.freenode.net -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list