-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Joseph,
I had similar thoughts recently, so I enjoyed your mail. Just some short comments: Some of the things you mentioned are already available, even if you are not an official developer. For example, - - your packages are listed at http://qa.debian.org/developer.php - - of course you can make entries in the debian wiki at http://wiki.debian.net - - Probably some of the statistics you propose (number of mails on mailing lists etc) can be calculated from a google search ;-) - - You can of course have a public key, but in order to become a developer it must be signed by other developers. But, what reflects my recent thoughts is the idea of having more stages than only "Debian Developer". You are already a Maintainer as soon as you have a package in the archive. Speaking of an "official title" as you suggested, maybe something like the following stages could be reasonable: - - Having at least one package in the archive: "Debian Maintainer" - - Having more packages in the archive, having contributed patches (probably also to the base Debian system), etc.: "Debian Contributor" - - Being "Debian Contributor" for some time, having bug-free packages, having shown continous activity, and fulfilling all other requirements which are already necessary today: "Debian Developer" My impression is that the process of becoming a developer is very hard, both for the applicant but also for the Application Managers. If someone contributed to the project continously for a long time, then decides to apply for New Maintainer which then takes another year (I dont know if this is the usual case), this could be frustrating. On the other hand, providing those stages above is also time consuming and the transition from one stage to another needs a well defined process, but the benefit would be that there are several small transitions than only a large one which could reduce the psychological barrier you mentioned, as people might be even more motivated to continue their work once they reached the first stage. And, finally, I think that "... maybe because things are working fine just the way they are ..." is reasonable, but I usually prefer "... there is always room for improvement" :-) Just my two cents, best regards Andreas Joseph Michael Smidt wrote: > I believe the greatest barrier the Debian Project has in preventing > widespread contributions from greater numbers of volunteers is a > psychological barrier. I have personally introduced Debian to [...] - -- Andreas Fester mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] WWW: http://www.littletux.net ICQ: 326674288 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFDuN47Z3bQVzeW+rsRAns1AKCUpUE+d/JE5GqEpmv+t2V1Y+zrcgCghdnY 2rAEw1K6k3aATzV2l/jyKVM= =1NUX -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]