[arch-general] How do AUR packages get new maintainers?

[Ng Oon-Ee]

On Wed, 2010-09-22 at 15:01 -0300, Ángel Velásquez wrote:
> David,
> 
> I will try to have some courtesy to you this time.
> 
> I usually read the mailing list, I don't reply it at all (just when I
> need to say my opinion) but, trust me, I read at least 70% of the
> mails of the list... From that 70% that I've read, I see, that you ask
> _anything_ on the list, so I don't think that you really did a minor
> research, or your research techniques are wrong, or you pretend that
> we are here to reply you 24/7.
> 
> Maybe in this little case, the question that you did, is not detailed
> on the wiki as you expected, but then let me ask you a question, did
> you updated the wiki when you didn't found the information and then
> you got a reply from the list? .. I think no. So don't complain about
> the lack of the information on the wiki.
> 
> Wanna an advice? try to don't ask _anything_ and waste the time of the
> people who usually reply you. Instead, try to research a little more,
> and then, after hours (yes hours) of researching, *ask*, and
> eventually the number of questions that you do on this list will
> decrease and probably you get better replies than a classic RTFM. I
> don't consider myself as a very-smart-guy-so-i-dont-ask .. but I try
> to don't ask a lot.
> 
> It's just my opinion, btw. Good luck.

Similar opinion here. While you (David) are obviously not dumb, the
sheer number of emails and tone of them seem to indicate a certain lack
of prior searching. Or perhaps a lack of creativity in searching.

In any case, the impression your question gives is of this sort of
process:-
1. Think about something.
2. Realize you're not sure how to do it.
3. Email an initial question to the list.
4. While waiting, try a few things on your own.
5. If not answered, add more comments in a reply to your own message.

Preferably, step 3 should be removed and 'do google/wiki/forum/ML
search' added to step 4. This would decrease your message ratio AND
increase the usefulness of your messages (hence the usefulness of the ML
archive).