Re: Q: single-maintainer vs team-maintainance of packages

Thanks Sruthi for reply!  (And I am sorry for the typo in your name)

Marc Haber <[email protected]> writes:

> Adduser, on the other side, I would love to have team maintained. Are
> you planning to fine me because I have failed to assemble a team
> around adduser? Or what do you have in your mind to make people do
> team work if a team fails to form?
>
> Will I get people assigned to help with adduser? Who is going to
> manage those non-volunteers?
>
> Team maintainance is a good thing. But forcing or requiring it is not
> going to work. Don't assume that there are people queuing up to
> co-maintain packages.

I share your reaction, but also: please don't assume poeple will NOT
randomly appear if there is a team around packages.  You don't
necessarily need to do anything beyond changing the 'Maintainer:' field.

I believe the rust/python/go/ruby/etc teams in Debian all prove, to some
extent, that merely having a team around packages somehow leads to a
dynamic that make people appear and contribute.

I believe the lack of contribution to single-maintainer packages can be
attributed (again: to some extent) to the fact the package is perceived
to be "owned" by a single individual.

I acknowledge that several teams have serious internal issues (for
example, the Go team seems paralyzed to make any team-wide policy
changes because there is no process in place for that, and people seems
to veto changes without clear authority or offer any constructive path
forward) but I still find the team-maintained packages in Debian to
overall be more healthy than single-maintainer packages.

I wish there was a 'Debian Developer Team' where all packages could be
welcome to.

I maintain some packages (e.g., cppi, git-merge-changelog, gnulib,
git2cl, gnulib-l10n, xe) where team-maintainance would be higly
appropriate and welcome, but I'm not aware of any existing team where
the packages naturally belong.  Maybe the situation is the same for
'adduser'?  I don't fancy launching any new team, as my experience with
small teams is poor and I try to reduce the number of teams (e.g.,
pkg-authentication, pkg-privacy, debian libidn team) rather than create
more.

I am happy with Sruthi's reply, and I hope as DPL she will lead
discussion that will lead to some policy changes.

/Simon

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