multiple uploaders

[Jonas Smedegaard]

Quoting Reinhard Tartler (2015-06-01 00:36:32)
> On Sun, May 31, 2015 at 2:34 PM, Ross Gammon <ross at the-gammons.net> wrote:
> 
>>>> If someone suggests a new package is brought into the team, and it 
>>>> is accepted, then the team is making a commitment at that point.
>>>
>>> How can you determine team commitment if only a single person is 
>>> working on the package? How is this better than having the package 
>>> not team maintained?
>>
>> I would say that if only one person has been uploading a package over 
>> a period of years and doing a good job, there is no need for team 
>> commitment because everything is fine. The team commitment comes if 
>> that person needs help at some point (technically or due to lack of 
>> time).
>
> Thanks for clarifying your position, this is where I clearly disagree. 
> IMO, if there is no need for team commitment, then there is no need 
> for the package to be under team maintenance in the first place. In 
> this case, it really doesn't matter if the package has a dedicated 
> maintainer or a team with a single uploader in the field.
>
> What does matter (at least to me) is the reputation of the team: A 
> team that groups a large amount of packages that are maintained by 
> individuals seems less than ideal. I'd like to see pkg-multimedia as a 
> team of people that collaborate, proactively help out, and learn from 
> each other. IME this only works if people actually look at each others 
> work, which in our case means subscribing to the commit mailing list 
> and actually looking at the commits.
> 
> However, pkg-multimedia has already have grown too big for that, 
> meaning, it is impossible to follow all of the teams work. Therefore, 
> we need to compromise. But I'd still love to think that pkg-multimedia 
> is still a responsive and reliable team that works together!

I agree with Reinhard here.


>>>> When a package gets behind, it is usually because the uploader(s) 
>>>> is/are a bit busy. The team should notice this on the QA 
>>>> page/dashboard and ping the uploader(s) on the list to see what the 
>>>> problem is.
>>>>
>>>> If they are temporarily busy, maybe they would be happy with a 
>>>> "Team Upload" by someone else?
>>>
>>> How is that different to a NMU?
>>
>> Only the changelog entry is different, and there is a series of 
>> commits in the repo instead of a diff attached to a bug.
>
> Oh, I think I see what you are saying: Pushing commits to a git 
> repository is easier than sending it to a bugreport? Hm, I think I can 
> follow that line of thought somehow:
>
> Basically, the argument is that having an orphaned package that is 
> team maintained is easier to work on than a package that has a 
> dedicated maintainer because of the rules that the Debian Policy 
> applies to NMUs: You have to file a bug with a patch, figure out with 
> what delay to upload, etc. If that's the point, then this workaround 
> feels to me like admitting defeat to the Debian NMU rules.

If you want to maintain a package on your own yet make it easy for 
others to help out, then add yourself to
https://wiki.debian.org/LowThresholdNmu


 - Jonas

-- 
 * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt
 * Tlf.: +45 40843136  Website: http://dr.jones.dk/

 [x] quote me freely  [ ] ask before reusing  [ ] keep private
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 819 bytes
Desc: signature
URL: <http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-multimedia-maintainers/attachments/20150601/1bb2e4c4/attachment.sig>