Re: How should we deal with bad maintainers?
On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 10:21:06AM +0100, Gergely Nagy wrote: Raphael Hertzog hert...@debian.org writes: assume that a package maintainer is active but is doing a bad job regarding our standards (things like ignoring problems in stable, breaking backwards compatibility for no good reason, not packaging new upstream versions in unstable, etc) and is not really cooperative (closing bugs hastily, not responding to help offers). What shall we do in those situations? Best case, I'm very motivated and I hijack the package but assume that I'm just interested in having a working package because it's a dependency of a package that I use but that I don't care enough to take it over. What are my options? On a similar topic, a couple of years ago, there was an effort to set up a salvaging process. Not quite for the situation Raphael describes, but somewhat related. My question to both candidates would be: what's your opinion on salvaging packages? If favourable, what do you think, could move it forward? I'm certainly keen to ensure the salvaging work goes ahead - to move it forward though I think it needs a bit of work done on dev-ref to formalise it, and have it proposed. We should make sure we're not duplicating the work of the MIA team. For maintainers who are active, and there's a technical disagreement about how a package is maintained, then the tech-ctte is the correct place to take the issue. Debian has a strong bond between packages and maintainers, which has both good and less good attributes. The advantage is that there's a person who knows the package intimately and is also responsible for it, but can cause issues if they disappear. We should try and mitigate the latter to ensure that the project can move on when this happens. Neil -- signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: How should we deal with bad maintainers?
Hi, On 30/03/14 at 19:34 +0100, Neil McGovern wrote: On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 10:21:06AM +0100, Gergely Nagy wrote: Raphael Hertzog hert...@debian.org writes: assume that a package maintainer is active but is doing a bad job regarding our standards (things like ignoring problems in stable, breaking backwards compatibility for no good reason, not packaging new upstream versions in unstable, etc) and is not really cooperative (closing bugs hastily, not responding to help offers). What shall we do in those situations? Best case, I'm very motivated and I hijack the package but assume that I'm just interested in having a working package because it's a dependency of a package that I use but that I don't care enough to take it over. What are my options? On a similar topic, a couple of years ago, there was an effort to set up a salvaging process. Not quite for the situation Raphael describes, but somewhat related. My question to both candidates would be: what's your opinion on salvaging packages? If favourable, what do you think, could move it forward? I'm certainly keen to ensure the salvaging work goes ahead - to move it forward though I think it needs a bit of work done on dev-ref to formalise it, and have it proposed. We should make sure we're not duplicating the work of the MIA team. (Agreed) For maintainers who are active, and there's a technical disagreement about how a package is maintained, then the tech-ctte is the correct place to take the issue. Well, I think that the DPL has a role to play here, too, by using mediation in order to restore dialogue, have each party see the issue with the other party's point of view, etc. That's something I have been involved with on at least two occasions during my term. Lucas signature.asc Description: Digital signature
How should we deal with bad maintainers?
Hello Neil Lucas, assume that a package maintainer is active but is doing a bad job regarding our standards (things like ignoring problems in stable, breaking backwards compatibility for no good reason, not packaging new upstream versions in unstable, etc) and is not really cooperative (closing bugs hastily, not responding to help offers). What shall we do in those situations? Best case, I'm very motivated and I hijack the package but assume that I'm just interested in having a working package because it's a dependency of a package that I use but that I don't care enough to take it over. What are my options? Cheers, -- Raphaël Hertzog ◈ Debian Developer Discover the Debian Administrator's Handbook: → http://debian-handbook.info/get/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-vote-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20140328090339.ga16...@x230-buxy.home.ouaza.com
Re: How should we deal with bad maintainers?
Raphael Hertzog hert...@debian.org writes: assume that a package maintainer is active but is doing a bad job regarding our standards (things like ignoring problems in stable, breaking backwards compatibility for no good reason, not packaging new upstream versions in unstable, etc) and is not really cooperative (closing bugs hastily, not responding to help offers). What shall we do in those situations? Best case, I'm very motivated and I hijack the package but assume that I'm just interested in having a working package because it's a dependency of a package that I use but that I don't care enough to take it over. What are my options? On a similar topic, a couple of years ago, there was an effort to set up a salvaging process. Not quite for the situation Raphael describes, but somewhat related. My question to both candidates would be: what's your opinion on salvaging packages? If favourable, what do you think, could move it forward? -- |8] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-vote-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/8738i21xx9@balabit.hu
