La Salle Debain

Joerg Jaspert has posted a proposal to add some new types of contributor status to the Debian project. I like it. Clint Adams on the other hand is not a fan

Here's why I think it is a good idea. For some time, I have been involved in trying to get people involved in Debian particulary, but not exclusively, Indians. One thing I have heard over and over again is that getting involved is too overwhelming. Obviously there are some people who are motivated enough to deal with all the hurdles but there are others who could contribute something but lack the time or inclination to go through the whole New Maintainer process. Some kind of lesser privileged status with would enable them to participate with less responsibilities. And, it must be acknowledged, with less rights, but this type of person would not care about being able to vote or login to project servers. It can be argued that they can already do this via alioth or sponsorship but this proposal formally acknowledges that they are part of the Debian team. Being on the inside may in time give wallflowers the impetus to get more involved and eventually seek full developer status.

We already have this in part with the Debian Maintainer appellation which seems to be working well, this proposal just extends the idea a little bit.

One thing which was not made clear was if the proposal is a fait accompli or if there will be a GR about it. I think there ought to be one to give skeptics a chance to really prod and poke this thing or we will end up with another morass of recrimination and backbiting like what happened with dunc-tank.