next FESCo meeting agenda.

[Michael Schwendt]

On Wed, 05 Jul 2006 17:43:31 -0700, Toshio Kuratomi wrote:

> I would like to see another level of Fedora Extras Contributor.  Someone
> previously unsponsored who wants to work on an orphaned package (or
> potentially orphaned due to AWOL maintainer) could be sponsored as a
> mentored packager.

Are you convinced that you would find enough people who want an official
role that sounds so "uncool"? Long ago we've done something similar
occasionally for some time. People with access to CVS and buildsys have
forwarded the modifications sent by contributors without access. It is
still possible at a limited degree, provided that a sponsor is willing to
do it. It doesn't add any security.

And it doesn't work smoothly for new packages, btw. (It bears a big risk
that the sponsor ends up with orphans)

> The mentor would track their mentoree's actions more
> closely than normal. 

What would be "normal"? ;)

> Watch their cvs commits.  Take a hand in watching
> upstream's changes.  Act as co-maintainer for the mentorees packages.

The majority of contributors want the full show, and quickly. A "Fedora
account". Even if they know they will have problems handling some things
(like working with the relevant tools). Further, some people sign up
quicker than they have an idea what to contribute. It's the old "be part
of it" community game without clear activities or contributions. Many more
people would sign up for an account if that became possible without
needing a sponsor and without actual contributions. It doesn't help Fedora
Extras if people are sponsored without contributing anything to the
package maintenance. On the contrary, when refusing access to CVS or
buildsys for someone who started getting active in bugzilla with a package
submission, there would be complaints that it hurts their productivity.

But remember, that it is possible to revoke sponsorship.

> This would

-snip-