Hi, On Wed, Jan 16, 2008 at 03:27:13AM -0500, Richard Stallman wrote: > Someone who decided not to help on Savannah wrote to me and said: > > I was told that I needed to run it locally. I was told that it could > take months or a year of experimenting and getting to know Savane on a > local machine before I could help with Savannah. > > That is probably why you are short on help. ;) > > Perhaps he has misunderstood, but could you tell me more about > this situation? Can you show me the response you send to people > who offer to help administer Savannah?
I attach a mailbox that includes the latest answers I gave to help offers. I'm the one who answer them, when they come by mail. Usually it boils down to: - thanks - point to current tasks lists and see what he's interested in - join #savannah to meet us Usually there are few people who actually join the IRC channel (or answer back), and the past few who did said they would look at the task lists and come back later - which they usually didn't. Maybe they are mislead by the term "administration", because Savannah currently requires little system maintenance, but rather needs user support or non-trivial improvements. Or more nastily, this is not a job where you only apply system updates via apt-get once in a while while having your name in some GNU webpage. As for this someone who decided not to help, I don't remember hearing or saying such statements, so possibly that person asked around on IRC at #savannah when I wasn't here and somebody else answered. In the context of submitting patches, I remember advising to install Savane locally, which is why I spent time last year to simplify the setup, and provide a pre-installed QEMU image with Debian and Savane pre-installed (download & run, can't be more simple). I don't remember making it sound like a prerequisite to actually help with Savannah administration. In my mind, helping Savannah administration means: - helped with tasks that do not require root access, such as project submissions, user support, etc, so we can test the user before trusting him/her with root access. We also usually grant a normal user account so as to look at Savannah while not being able to alter it or getting access to sensitive information (such as passwords). - after that first phase, whose duration depends much on the person's involvement (a little task one a week or a regular help), we know if (s)he has basis sysadmin skills and Savannah interest, and we can grant more privileges. Sometimes the user is actually not interested with system administration though. Currently much of the volunteers do have root access but seldom used it. - after that the volunteer can help with user requests that do require root access (password/e-mail change, CVS tarball import, etc.) and progressively get acquainted with the system. That is, I see it as a progressive involvement and understanding, rather than a tedious preparation process. For people who want to help with reviewing project submissions only, then that's of course a different story, and sysadmining is usually not evoked at all. See the basic instructions that Jean-Michel wrote: https://savannah.gnu.org/maintenance/HowToBecomeASavannahHacker Does that person wish to remain anonymous? Maybe I could look for more info about happened if we know his/her name. -- Sylvain
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sun Jan 6 09:47:29 2008 Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2008 09:47:29 +0100 From: Sylvain Beucler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Bill Xu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Membership request for group Savannah Administration Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> References: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> X-Operating-System: GNU/Linux User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.17 (2007-11-01) Status: RO Content-Length: 404 Lines: 19 Hi, On Mon, Dec 31, 2007 at 06:51:29AM +0000, Bill Xu wrote: > Hi Savannah hackers, > > I am Bill Xu, a free software hacker from China, I am interested in your > working with savannah, I'd like to join this group. > > Happy hacking! Thanks for offering help! Can you have a look https://savannah.gnu.org/maintenance/CurrentTasks and see what you're interested in? Hear from you soon, -- Sylvain >From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thu Sep 27 01:12:54 2007 Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2007 01:12:54 +0200 From: Sylvain Beucler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: James Youngman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: FYI: commits-to-cvs disabled (switching to git) Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> References: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> X-Operating-System: GNU/Linux User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.13 (2006-08-11) Status: RO Content-Length: 1298 Lines: 28 On Tue, Sep 25, 2007 at 12:40:25PM +0100, James Youngman wrote: > On 9/24/07, Sylvain Beucler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > For my project I still partially use CVS, plus I'd like to enable "git > > pserver" for all projects, plus there's currently no way for the > > frontend to know if git pserver is enabled - so, with the > > multiplication of repositories we instead need some some Savane code > > to describe all repositories attached to a project and they relate to > > each others. Currently I don't have time to code this because we're > > short of people to review submitted projects at Savannah, so I'd > > welcome contributions (either in code, either in project approvals). > > What level of time commitment would i need to offer in order to be useful? For code, I expect several days to get acquainted with the code and write a working prototype which can be improved upon. For project approvals, I suppose you have the prerequisites (licensing, GNU standards) so it'll require some hours to read the documentation about the approval process and write some first reviews. Then you essentially need to be responsive once you started reviewing a submission, but you do not need to pick a new submission every day, so this can be flexible. Did I answer your question? :) -- Sylvain >From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thu Aug 2 09:24:17 2007 Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2007 09:24:17 +0200 From: Sylvain Beucler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: janux <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Savannah-hackers-public] Unix Admin wanted for Savannah Administration Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> References: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> X-Operating-System: GNU/Linux User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.13 (2006-08-11) Status: RO Content-Length: 351 Lines: 15 On Sun, Jul 29, 2007 at 10:18:28PM -0500, janux wrote: > Hi there I had experience +10 in *NIX O.S. I like to help. Hi, Thanks for helping out! Can you check our tasks list? http://savannah.gnu.org/maintenance/CurrentTasks http://savannah.gnu.org/maintenance/TasksList Feel free to join #savannah at Freenode and have a little chat. -- Sylvain >From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Wed Jul 18 12:23:27 2007 Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:23:27 +0200 From: Sylvain Beucler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Rex Sanna <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Savannah-hackers-public] Hi! Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> References: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> X-Operating-System: GNU/Linux User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.13 (2006-08-11) Status: RO Content-Length: 946 Lines: 40 Hi, Thanks for offering your help! (I personnaly speak a bit of Italian, but we communicate with English at Savannah) We maintain a tasks list here: https://savannah.gnu.org/maintenance/CurrentTasks https://savannah.gnu.org/maintenance/TasksList Can you have a look at them? Also, feel free to drop by #savannah at Freenode and meet the friends :) -- Sylvain On Sun, Jul 15, 2007 at 03:55:37PM +0200, Rex Sanna wrote: > This is Rex. > > Dunno wich lang you prefer to write to, but i'd like > to get more infos about the kind of sysadmin you're looking for. > > Thus please reply. > I could send you my CV. > > ================================================ > > Salve! > > Non so in quale lingua scrivere, ma sarei interessato alla mansione > libera di unix admin per savannah.. Ho letto che ricercate qualcuno. > > Vorrei poter sapere il tipo di sysadmin che cercate ed > in cosa consiste per voi la sua funzione. > > Grazie. >From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sat Jun 9 18:00:35 2007 Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2007 18:00:35 +0200 From: Sylvain Beucler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Gabriel Monge-Franco <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Savannah admin help Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> References: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> X-Operating-System: GNU/Linux User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.13 (2006-08-11) Status: RO Content-Length: 2061 Lines: 76 Hi, The best way to join is to contribute. You can work on several tasks without any privilege (doc, project approvals, support requests, building a test install, etc.), and then ping an admin to review and apply your work. Once we get more acquainted we'll give you access so you can work more independently. Today, our most urgent tasks are: - reduce the project submissions backlog: please help by reading the FAQ about project submissions, improving your knowledge about licensing and submit project reviews to one of the Savannah admins (usually idling on IRC) - test our Savane code base, which is currently available at http://svn.savannah.nongnu.org/viewvc/trunk/?root=administration I'm working on scripts to build a complete Savannah test install right now, but meanwhile it should be as easy as: # install Apache2/PHP/MySQL cd tests/minimal_configs/ make install yourwebbrowser http://localhost:50080 Hear from you soon, -- Sylvain On Fri, Jun 08, 2007 at 01:00:54AM -0700, Gabriel Monge-Franco wrote: > Hi Sylvain, > > So how do I join? > > Gabriel. > > --- Sylvain Beucler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > On Mon, Jun 04, 2007 at 04:57:59AM +0000, Gabriel > > Monge-Franco wrote: > > > Hi Sylvain, > > > > > > My name is Gabriel, and I'm looking for > > something semi-productive to do > > > between school and work. :) Do you still need > > help with Savannah admin > > > tasks? What exactly would this involve? > > > > Thanks for your help :) > > > > Contributing to Savannah administration involves a > > small but regular > > amount of work on a variety of tasks. > > > > For example, did you check > > http://savannah.gnu.org/maintenance/TasksList > > ? > > > > Currently we'd appreciate more help with reviewing > > new project > > submissions - that is, check that new projects > > respect the GNU > > philosophy, and teach about copyright and license > > best practices. > > > > If you use IRC, feel free to drop by #savannah at > > Freenode and have a > > little chat :) > > > > -- > > Sylvain >From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sat May 19 21:15:54 2007 Date: Sat, 19 May 2007 21:15:54 +0200 From: Sylvain Beucler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Pedro Rodrigues <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: savannah administration call for help Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> References: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> X-Operating-System: GNU/Linux User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.13 (2006-08-11) Status: RO Content-Length: 587 Lines: 24 Hi, On Fri, May 18, 2007 at 10:29:28AM +0100, Pedro Rodrigues wrote: > Hi Sylvain, > I register an account at http://savannah.gnu.org and look at the savannah > administration call for help. > I'm a unix/linux admin with some experience and i'd like to help in this > tasks. > Maybe we can talk by jabber and keep contact. > I will be waiting for your reply. Hi, Thanks for your help. Can you have a look at: https://savannah.gnu.org/maintenance/TasksList and tell us what you can do? Feel free to drop by #savannah @ freenode where Savannah admins usually hang out :) -- Sylvain >From me Mon May 14 10:49:22 2007 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Received: from ns0.ovh.net [213.186.33.20] by localhost.localdomain with POP3 (fetchmail-6.3.6) for <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (single-drop); Mon, 14 May 2007 10:49:22 +0200 (CEST) Received: from b0.ovh.net (HELO queue) (213.186.33.50) by b0.ovh.net with SMTP; 14 May 2007 08:45:48 -0000 Received: from localhost (HELO mail117.ha.ovh.net) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 14 May 2007 08:45:48 -0000 Received: from b0.ovh.net (HELO queue-out) (213.186.33.50) by b0.ovh.net with SMTP; 14 May 2007 08:45:47 -0000 Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Received: from b0.ovh.net (HELO queue) (213.186.33.50) by b0.ovh.net with SMTP; 14 May 2007 08:45:47 -0000 Received: from lists.gnu.org (199.232.76.165) by mx0.ovh.net with SMTP; 14 May 2007 08:45:46 -0000 Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1HnWJP-0004Vx-25 for [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Mon, 14 May 2007 04:53:47 -0400 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1HnWJL-0004S3-TP for [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Mon, 14 May 2007 04:53:43 -0400 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1HnWJJ-0004ON-2t for [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Mon, 14 May 2007 04:53:42 -0400 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1HnWJI-0004Nw-Rk for [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Mon, 14 May 2007 04:53:40 -0400 Received: from 30.mail-out.ovh.net ([213.186.62.213]) by monty-python.gnu.org with smtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>) id 1HnWBX-00051m-2C for [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Mon, 14 May 2007 04:45:39 -0400 Received: (qmail 24523 invoked by uid 503); 14 May 2007 08:45:53 -0000 Received: (QMFILT: 1.0); 14 May 2007 08:45:53 -0000 Received: from b7.ovh.net (HELO mail189.ha.ovh.net) (213.186.33.57) by 30.mail-out.ovh.net with SMTP; 14 May 2007 08:45:53 -0000 Received: from b0.ovh.net (HELO queue-out) (213.186.33.50) by b0.ovh.net with SMTP; 14 May 2007 08:45:34 -0000 Received: from j38ju.game-host.org (HELO localhost.localdomain) (82.238.35.175) by ns0.ovh.net with SMTP; 14 May 2007 08:45:32 -0000 Received: from me by localhost.localdomain with local (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>) id 1HnWBM-0003lZ-Qr; Mon, 14 May 2007 10:45:28 +0200 Date: Mon, 14 May 2007 10:45:28 +0200 From: Sylvain Beucler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Paul Valentino <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [Savannah-hackers-public] Unix Admin help Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> References: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> X-Operating-System: GNU/Linux User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.13 (2006-08-11) X-Ovh-Remote: 82.238.35.175 (j38ju.game-host.org) X-Ovh-Local: 213.186.33.20 (ns0.ovh.net) X-detected-kernel: Linux 2.4-2.6 Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-BeenThere: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Discussions among Savannah Hackers, open subscription" <savannah-hackers-public.gnu.org> List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/savannah-hackers-public>, <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> List-Archive: <http://lists.gnu.org/pipermail/savannah-hackers-public> List-Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> List-Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> List-Subscribe: <http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/savannah-hackers-public>, <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Errors-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-Ovh-Remote: 199.232.76.165 (lists.gnu.org) X-Ovh-Local: 213.186.33.32 (mx0.ovh.net) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.3 (2005-04-27) on dmc X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.3 required=3.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.3 Status: RO X-Status: A Content-Length: 512 Lines: 23 Hi, On Fri, May 11, 2007 at 11:19:05PM +0000, Paul Valentino wrote: > Hi there, don't have a lot of savane experience but a Unix/Linux veteran > of 5 years if that helps. Let me know what I can do. > > Thanks, Sorry for the delay - busy upgrade this week-end :) We maintain a list of planned tasks, the most urgent ones being listed here: https://savannah.gnu.org/maintenance/CurrentTasks Is something of interest to you? Feel free to join #savannah at freenode for a little talk. Cheers, -- Sylvain >From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mon Apr 30 20:59:39 2007 Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 20:59:39 +0200 From: Sylvain Beucler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Antonio Barba <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Savannah-hackers-public] RE to "Savannah Hackers are looking for help" Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> References: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> X-Operating-System: GNU/Linux User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.13 (2006-08-11) Status: RO Content-Length: 601 Lines: 22 On Mon, Apr 30, 2007 at 02:29:16AM +0200, Antonio Barba wrote: > Hi there, > I'm interested in helping you with day-to-day administration of the > site, but first I'd like to know well what kind of tasks I'll have to > do. > I've enough time to spend and I'am very motivated. > > PS: I apologize for my bad english, but it isn't my first language :-) Hi, We maintain a list of planned tasks, the most urgent ones being listed here: https://savannah.gnu.org/maintenance/CurrentTasks Is something of interest to you? Feel free to join #savannah at freenode for a little talk. Cheers, -- Sylvain
