Hi. I have been granted read/write access to the Debian website, which means that I can add the NetBSD port to the official website, and I will do so if there are no objections. The only downside is that non-official-Debian-developers can't have read/write access, but they can still contribute to the website by checking out the source anonymously, making changes, and submitting a patch to someone with access. There are two reasons why I think this is worthwhile. First, it would be nice to get the website of an official Debian port away from SourceForge, which is now a showcase for a non-free site engine. Second, since it is an official Debian port, it should be on the official Debian site. There, not on SourceForge, is where people will be looking for any unusual ports of Debian, and if someone hears that there is a NetBSD port for Debian, they'll look on debian.org, not on SourceForge.
In my opinion, those who are going to be doing a lot of work on the website (possibly Matthew Garret, for example?) should apply for official Debian developer status. I'll advocate, though unless you can get to New York City you'll need to find someone else to sign your key. Also, anyone who is going to be doing a lot of work on the BSD port in general should apply for that status, because eventually we will be using more of Debian's facilities, many of which are restricted to developers. Those who are doing more casual work on the website or on the rest of the port should simply do the work and send in patches. This works very well with the main Debian website, on which much work is done by non-DDs, and a similar situation is in place regarding sponsored uploads of packages maintained by non-DDs. I may start the job before this, but in order to allow people to object (since this should really be a group decision), I will not finish the job by adding an entry to the main ports page (and appropriate entries elsewhere) until at least tomorrow evening US Eastern Time, or later. I don't want to tear control of the website away from anyone, but I think it would be useful for better publicity and to make our project seem a little bit more official. - Jimmy Kaplowitz [EMAIL PROTECTED]
