[Mageia-dev] In need of a mentor

[Kamil Rytarowski]

On 15.02.2012 21:41, Steven Tucker wrote:
> Hi all,
Hello Steven!
>
> I would like to make comment on the Mentoring system, and hopefully I 
> will convey it, and be interpreted in the best possible spirit.
> I am glad Kyle has now had an offer to be mentored and by no means 
> wish to stop this or interfere in anyway, however I felt quite 
> deflated when I read the offer to mentor him, and I imagine others 
> would too, so I feel obligated to comment.
>
> There is a list on the wiki of people looking for mentors
>
> https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Becoming_a_Mageia_Packager#Packaging_apprentice_candidates 
>
>
> Kyle has indeed added his name to the list, however there are 5 people 
> on the list before him, I have been on that list since mid January, 
> and there is someone who has been waiting since late November.
>
> All things being equal, shouldn't preference be given to the top 
> (longest waiting) of the list?
> Is there a reason why 5 people get overlooked, and someone who has 
> been waiting 2 days is given a chance? 
There are lot kinds of packages in Mageia (C++, documentation, Java, 
Gnome, KDE, web, kernel, assembler, Perl, Haskell, XFCE4, Ruby, Ocaml, 
...) and usually mentors take these apprentice candidates, where there 
is a common field of shared interests.
> If we are not as committed/capable/available/desirable can someone 
> please let us know?
Don't think like that please! As wiki says, the most important is 
enthusiasm! I have seen that even qualified computer scientists cannot 
finish the mentoring process due to lack of enthusiasm (they need to 
dedicate their free time to the project).
> I have already packaged a program I wrote and want added to Mageia, 
> and I wait patiently for a Mentor, just to find the line has been cut.
>
> Do I need to constantly have IRC on to be chosen?
Of course not! It's individual flavour of communication, some people 
prefer IRC, some e-mails, some other ways to communicate.
> is there some unwritten rules about how to gain a mentor? If so please 
> let me know so I can do these things.
There is probably one thing "unwritten", just trying to ping developers 
helps in finding. Kyle was asking several times on IRC for mentor.
>
> I hope this is taken constructively, I don't wish for the mentoring 
> offer to Kyle to be withdrawn, he sounds like he will be an asset to 
> the packaging team, I do think though that you should consider the 
> list first before making offers. If a person is not suitable, tell 
> them so they can move on, perhaps package for another distro, 
> whatever. Don't just leave them there to rot.
The truth is simple, we are short of packagers and therefore mentors. 
Everybody with enthusiasm (even without great Unix skills) is welcome.

I have mostly finished my project of the consolidation of spell-checkers 
in Mga, that costed hundreds of commits, and now I feel ready to start 
helping in the mentoring process.

I have proposed to you and to Edward (edge226) to teach you packaging.
To be clear, after reading your "interests / skills / comments", I 
decided that I can be a better mentor for you, according to the field of 
interest.
>
> Tuxta

Regards and welcome!

Kamil