Need advocate

[ivan]

On Tue, Jul 31, 2001 at 05:24:43PM -0700, Michael S. Fischer wrote:
> 
> Please don't talk down to me, Ivan.  I'm not stupid.  I've read the
> documentation.

I'm sorry if you think I'm talking down to you.  Certainly not my intent. 
Your message indicated pretty clearly that, whether or not you had read
the documentation, you have not actually followed the "when to do an NMU" 
guidelines in that section of the documentation.

> Fine, but I need to get certified so that I can perform NMUs or
> manage packages (I have a couple in mind) if I need to at some point in
> the future, else I'll have something ready and need to wait six months
> to have it integrated.  Pardon me if that doesn't sound ridiculous.

...

> And what's with the collective attitude about bringing new developers
> aboard?  This doesn't sound like the friendly, open, collaborative process 
> it claims to be.  The attitude is rather elitist.

Speaking as someone who recently completed the new maintainer process,
I did not find the process elitist.

> there's no point in asking permission if I don't have the status to
> begin with, and that is why I was asking for help.

This is backward from the way the new maintainer process works.

You're expected to do everything a maintainer would do to fix a problem
(if QA is your thing) or create a new package or whatever.  When it
actually comes time to upload, it is not difficult to find someone to
sponsor your package or even NMU: add yourself and your package to
http://www.internatif.org/bortzmeyer/debian/sponsor/

I personally offer to sponsor your package uploads if you get to this step
and haven't completed the new maintainer process yet.

-- 
meow
_ivan