Soren Stoutner <so...@debian.org> writes: > On Wednesday, December 4, 2024 10:30:34 AM MST Andreas Tille wrote: >> Am Mon, Dec 02, 2024 at 06:15:22PM -0700 schrieb Soren Stoutner: >> > I think one of the best things we could do to attract new contributors, > and >> > to encourage those who are currently Sponsored Maintainers to become > Debian >> > Maintainers, and those who are current Debian Maintainers to become Debian >> > Developers would be to create an official DPL Mentors Delegation. This >> > would build on the excellent work Phil Wyett is currently doing as the >> > unofficial Mentors Triage. >> >> Speaking both with and without my DPL hat, I don't think a delegation is >> necessary. Instead, I would prefer to establish a way to direct sponsees >> to the appropriate team for their package. From my experience, the teams >> I work with are quite effective at sponsoring packages that fit their >> scope and are maintained within the team's Git repository. I believe >> that ensuring a package fits properly into a team is a key prerequisite >> for a good sponsor-sponsee relationship. >> >> When I was regularly monitoring ITPs, I noticed that newcomers often >> struggle to "find friends" (i.e., sponsors). In my opinion, what we need >> is someone to guide sponsees to the appropriate team, Salsa group, or >> similar space. This role doesn't require a delegation since it doesn't >> involve authority, but rather a deep understanding of Debian's structure >> and workflows. > > I have directed several RFS (Request For Sponsor) towards appropriate teams, > when then exist. However, my personal experience is that the majority of RFS > that come into Debian Mentors do not fit neatly into any existing team.
I suspect the RFS process would be more successful in finding a sponsor if the requests went to debian-devel rather than another opt-in mailing list. I rarely go looking for more work to do by viewing https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=sponsorship-requests;dist=unstable so I would never find a RFS unless someone ping'ed a packaging group that I'm part of to help. The noise level of debian-devel would go up, but if we collectively find RFS being ignored a serious problem, then maybe making noise about a serious problem is a good idea. FWIW, I took a look at the RFS list now for writing this e-mail and found "libunistring" which is an important library that I know relatively well, and build-depend on for libidn2, and would be happy to review and help work on it. Hopefully I'll manage to review and upload it. So this being brought up on debian-devel did nudge me into looking for things to help with. /Simon
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