Bug#506809: oolite: new upstream release (1.73)

[Stephen Kitt]

On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 09:46:19AM +0200, Ludovic Brenta wrote:
> So, essentially your argument is that having the Debian Games Team
> mailing  list as the official maintainer is solely a way to bypass
> the normal Debian procedures of NMU and adoption.  I think that
> bypassing these procedures is in fact a bad thing.  They exist for
> good reason and it is important, IMHO, not to make it seem that a
> package is team-maintained when it isn't.  In fact, I argue that
> sending this incorrect message makes adoption more difficult:
> - a prospective maintainer might be shy of joining the team
> - a prospective maintainer might not see that a package needs
>   adoption, since it seems team-maintained.

No, not quite, although I do understand how my argument could be taken
in this way.  What I'm saying that having the Debian Games Team as the
official maintainer is a declaration that the "actual" maintainer
requests that anyone in the DGT take care of the package if
necessary.  Once that declaration has been made, it seems a shame to
me to withdraw it.  Beyond that the normal Debian procedures of NMU
and adoption still apply, so anyone not in the DGT can still NMU a DGT
package (although obviously we'd like people to join the team), and a
package can be adopted back out (or removed from the team by its
maintainer).

Admittedly your last two points are strong ones, and my argument only
really has merit if the team in question is active.  That is not the
case for the DGT currently (at least if measured by mailing-list
activity, I don't hang out on IRC much so I don't know how things are
there), so in effect listing a package as DGT-maintained is a bet on
the future activity of the team rather than something based on its
current capacity.  I would argue further though that I believe judging
whether a package should be adopted is something which can be better
done by examining the state of its bugs than by checking whether it is
team-maintained...

Would it be possible to know what Nicolas thinks?  After all, it is
his package, and he has already made changes which have been uploaded
with a "DGT-maintained" stamp.

In any case, you're the sponsor, I'm only expressing my feelings on
the matter.

Regards,

Stephen