Dear Ian, TC members and everybody, the discussion about maintainership is interesting, and maybe I will post a comment later, but I think that the main problem is the speed of the TC to take its decissions.
And one very important comment that was made in this thread is that the TC needs wide support from Debian members. It needs trust and respect. So I would like to tell my personal opinion here, which I hope is shared by many other project members: Dear TC, you have my support, and please feel empowered to require high standards from the confronting parties that ask for your decisions, so that your task is made easier, for everybody' good. - The TC members should not be asked to read through long threads and dig history in the mailing lists. Instead, each side should maintain a synthethic position with a proper rebuttal of the other side's opinions, and maintain it up to date. - Of course, since this requires significant involvement from both parties, the TC has to protect maintainers from deliberate obstructions or attempts to suck up their time and demotivate them with TC procedures. To block that kind of "negative energy", the TC should not hesitate to dismiss a complain if it is poorly argumented, or if nobody on the complaining side has time to follow up. - With this guarantee, I think that it would be fair if the TC would give deadlines to the conflicting sides to explain their views. Its closed mailing list would be a good tool for negociating the deadlines without disclosing personal information. (And of course, in the case of non-responsive maintainers, it will still be a bad argument if one answers that there is enough time to take care of the package, but not enough time to provide answers to the CTTE in a reasonable delay). - Similarly, if some TC members do not have time to get deeply involved in a discussion, that is life, and that is one reason why there is a committee of multiple members. In the worst case scenario, do not hesitate to skip a given vote, I am sure that the project as a whole will not blame you for this. Rather, we will be grateful that you helped that way to speed up the process. - To keep the discussion in clear boundaries, random opinons from third parties that are not integrated on one or the other side's argumentation can be ignored. External imput is welcome, but it should be the role of both sides to adopt it in their argumentation if they think they are important enough. Late minute minor comments should not be a blocker either. Otherwise, there is never and end and it opens the way to tactical behaviours for delaying decisions. - In general, do not hesitate to be severe with those who play the clock. - Also, I think that the main expectation about the TC is that it will resolve conflicts, and in that sense, I would say please do not feel pressure to find an even better solution to a problem by yourselves, that would leave on your shoulders the pressure for implementation when noboy else volunteers for it. Just unblocking a frozen situation is already great ! Altogether, thanks a lot for your work ! Have a nice Sunday, Charles -- Charles Plessy Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan
