[Mageia-discuss] Suggestions

Ahmad Samir ahmadsamir3891 at gmail.com
Sun Oct 24 18:05:03 CEST 2010


On 24 October 2010 17:43, Dale Huckeby <spock at evansville.net> wrote:
> On Sun, 24 Oct 2010, Michael Scherer wrote:
>
>> But I think that if people knew that there is collaboration between
>> employee and non-employee, they would have feel more welcome. And from
>> what I read, you didn't know, so you were cautious, which seemed
>> natural. That's our fault, and that's something we tried to fix with
>> assembly ( without much sucess on the first try ), something I tried to
>> fix by being present at every possible free software fair ( without much
>> success too )
>
> I know and suspect many others know that Mandriva is created/maintained
> by employees plus volunteers. Not knowing that isn't what makes potential
> volunteers hesitate (in my opinion). It's not a matter of feeling
> UNwelcome. It's an ABSENSE of the existing team going out of their way
> to invite in potential contributors, holding their hand, showing them
> where to go, who to talk to, what process to follow, etc.

That's exactly what happened to me, how I became a packager, so maybe
it's not all people on the inside not reaching out.

 > As you imply
> above, it's lack of effective communication. Perhaps it's hard for
> people on the "inside" to realize how lost potential contributors on the
> "outside" feel unless there's a concerted effort to include them in and
> guide them through the process. Maybe there should be a person dedicated
> to bringing in and guiding new contributors, someone with really good
> communication skills.

Ideally it's a two way process, a user wanna contribute and a mentor
doesn't mind to mentor/tutor him.

It was Jerome Quelin who started the "So, you wanna be a packager?"
thread on the cooker ML, that's what encouraged me, and other new
contributors, to come forward. So yeah, such "campaigns" are needed.

> Also, is there a list anywhere of packages that
> need a maintainer, so new contributors would have a better idea of where
> help is needed?
>
> Dale Huckeby
>

There is: http://maintainers.mandriva.com/listpkgs.php?owner=1
and of course, there'll be a packages/maintainers database in Mageia too.

(Note that not every package in that list is current, i.e. it could be
a dead package (upstream stopped developing it.. etc); also there're
packages that have nomaintainer but get updated regularly).

-- 
Ahmad Samir


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