LWN.net Logo

Debian welcomes non-packaging contributors

From:  Neil McGovern <neilm-AT-debian.org>
To:  debian-devel-announce-AT-lists.debian.org
Subject:  Results for Debian project members GR
Date:  Tue, 19 Oct 2010 14:48:00 +0100
Message-ID:  <20101019134800.GI14739@halon.org.uk>
Archive-link:  Article, Thread

Hi,

This is to confirm that Option 1 "Welcome non-packaging contributors as
project members" has won the recent GR, with 285 votes versus 14.

Stats and full analysis of results etc are at
http://master.debian.org/~secretary/gr_nonpackagers/

Thanks,
Neil
-- 
return (test == true)? ( (test == false)? false : true) : ((test == false) ? false : true);


(Log in to post comments)

Debian welcomes non-packaging contributors

Posted Oct 19, 2010 14:58 UTC (Tue) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link]

Seems such a obvious decision that I am surprised it took so long. Fedora has always treated all contributions as valuable and recognized them as contributors and members of Fedora.

Debian welcomes non-packaging contributors

Posted Oct 19, 2010 15:34 UTC (Tue) by kartik (subscriber, #54526) [Link]

Non-packaging contributors were already there. AFAIK, some DDs became DD by their contribution to documentation and translation. It was upto AM how to proceed with their NM.

Late, but warm welcoming decision.

Debian welcomes non-packaging contributors

Posted Oct 19, 2010 15:40 UTC (Tue) by tolimar (subscriber, #35638) [Link]

Debian always valued and welcomed non-packaging contributors. The problem just was, that there was no documented procedure on how to become one, only packaging contributors found a clear step-by-step guide how to become DD. Therefore it was rarely used as it was not well known about.

This GR tries to change that, by publicly stating that Debian really wants non-packaging contributors (and establish a documented, clear procedure how to become one).

Making Fun Of Boolnoobs

Posted Oct 20, 2010 4:34 UTC (Wed) by ldo (subscriber, #40946) [Link]

Like that sig. :)

Making Fun Of Boolnoobs

Posted Oct 20, 2010 20:44 UTC (Wed) by dfsmith (guest, #20302) [Link]

It's only interesting if test is a macro.

Making Fun Of Boolnoobs

Posted Oct 21, 2010 7:37 UTC (Thu) by mpr22 (subscriber, #60784) [Link]

Or declared volatile.

Debian welcomes non-packaging contributors

Posted Oct 23, 2010 8:31 UTC (Sat) by bpearlmutter (subscriber, #14693) [Link]

I'm a Debian developer, and I thought this was a pretty bad idea. The reason is that the only real difference this makes is voting: it basically allows non-technical people to vote. If we want decisions to be driven by technical considerations, we should try to get voters who can understand the nuances of technical considerations.

Debian welcomes non-packaging contributors

Posted Oct 25, 2010 21:31 UTC (Mon) by zack (subscriber, #7062) [Link]

Except that generally doesn't vote on technical matters and rather rely on do-ocracy or rough consensus for technical decisions. That, per se, is a very good practice, since voting on technical matters is generally flawed anyhow.

Imagine for instance we are going to vote on a technical decision related to a tricky issue related to dependencies among packages shipping OCaml bytecode. How many people will be able to vote in a well-informed matter, without having to spend days learning all the technical details they were previously unaware of?

If you assume that (hypothetical) technical votes can span all the technical skills available among Debian developers, I purport that the average difference in knowledge among 2 random (uploading) Debian developers is no bigger than the difference you'll find a few years from now among 2 random (uploading or non-uploading) Debian developers.

Yet another reasons not to have project-wide votes on technical matters. That's, en passant, is also the reason why the Debian Constitution had a Technical Committee in it instead of relying on project-wide voting to settle technical disputes.

Copyright © 2010, Eklektix, Inc.
Comments and public postings are copyrighted by their creators.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds