On Mon, 2026-11-09 at 07:56 +0100, Marc Haber wrote: > On Mon, Nov 09, 2026 at 09:19:26AM +0800, Maytham Alsudany wrote: > > mentors.d.n should probably be clearer about what should be in Debian, > > based on existing info about new packages in the Developer's > > Reference. A checklist would be helpful e.g. unique functionality no > > other package does, substantial userbase, explaining that Debian repos > > are supposed to make it easiee to install software people are already > > installing and using through other means. > > While we're at it, that documentation should also make clear that we > expect the Debian mainatainer to support the version that is in stable > for the lifetime of stable/oldstable plus LTS (years) WITHOUT having the > chance to simply push a new upstream version into (old)stable. > > Many upstream drive-by "maintainers" get bitchy about not being able to > upload new versions directly to testing in the freeze period already. > > We tend to forget that Debian is usually not the only distribution in > which such eager upstreams try to push their software in. > > I tend to see the fact that a person who is already familiar with Debian > and is ont the upstream author felt a need to have a certain software in > Debian as an indication that the software is _actually_ useful.
+1 mentors.d.n already has this[1]: Debian is a distribution, not a general purpose repository. Many of us do not believe every piece of free software necessarily belongs in Debian. Please do not treat Debian as a platform to advertise your own software, unless there is some real request for it. That said, there is no one who ultimately judges about that. Eventually you may get some feedback on that discussion after filing your WNPP bug (see below) however you are free to interpret that as a suggestion, not as a final vote. After all, you need to find a sponsor believing in the benefit of having your package in Debian. Please have a look at our sponsors page to learn about personal interests of sponsors. This is probably not prominent enough considering the amount of people that ignore this and go ahead. -- Maytham [1] https://mentors.debian.net/intro-maintainers/ Before I the Developer's Reference had this, it turns out my memory was wrong and it was actually mentors.d.n.
