[aur-general] TU application.

[Ronald van Haren]

On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 9:57 PM, Thomas Dziedzic <gostrc at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 2:24 PM, Daenyth Blank <daenyth+arch at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 15:22, Christopher Brannon <cmbrannon79 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Indeed I have.
>>> Let the discussion period begin.
>>>
>>> -- Chris
>>>
>>> PS.  That's a very well-written application!
>>>
>>
>> I have nothing to add except to concur with Chris. Nice application :)
>>
>
> Hey Peter.
>
> I'm just going to reply to some of the things you said.
>
>>1) Maintain popular packages well and reliably.
>>
>>I currently maintain 7 packages in the AUR, and am interested particularly in
>>things relating to science and research (e.g. latex, octave, sage,
>>bibliographic management stuff like mendeley and kbib), as well as KDE things
>>(I've been building and using KDE since version 1.0). And while I think it's
>>ideal when people maintain things that they use themselves, this wouldn't
>>restrict me from taking on other packages that I don't use.
>>
>>See my current packages here:
>>http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?SeB=m&K=petelewis
>>
>
> The only packages that you mentioned your interests in that aren't
> maintained in community are mendeley and kbib.
>

/off-topic
Don't know mendeley. Kbib is still qt3 or have they finally a workable
qt4 version, I really hate using jabref.
/off-topic

> You do have very few packages albeit nice and clean ones. I think that
> you should demonstrate the final thing you mentioned by adopting some
> more packages and cleaning them up so that you at least have 20. Ofc
> this is not required and it's just my opinion. (I think the minimum
> amount of packages any user should have before applying to a TU
> position is 20 nice and clean ones)
> I'm just suggesting this so that I know that when TU's apply (not just
> picking on you) that they at least look like they have some minimal
> experience that I expect a TU to have.
>

Agreed. Alternatively I would be satisfied with some patches you
supplied to some projects to fix issues. I don't doubt your ability
reading what you're doing, just like to see some prove of motivation
to do this kind of work.

>>2) Promote Arch and the TU scheme.
>>
>>As I said, I think we need more TUs, while maintaining our high standard. I'd
>>like to promote the TU scheme and get more skilled Arch users to take on
>>maintaining the packages that they use. I think a world where more people
>>maintain a small number of packages each in [community] will lead to a bigger
>>and higher quality [community] repo. We should advertise, with the aim of
>>
>
> I agree.
>
>>having many more TUs. This also means that we shouldn't be afraid of voting
>>people down if they're not yet ready, and give feedback to help them improve
>>and invite them to apply again later. We all benefit from this.
>>
>
> Now I know you can't be angry at me for the previous comments :)
>
>>3) Maintain / improve processes and package standards.
>>
>>I think that standard processes and packages are very important, and can make
>>life using Arch a lot easier. It's also important that the processes are
>>right, and this means attention to detail. Things like package naming and
>>categories fall into this. I think a large part of the job of a TU is to keep
>>the AUR clean and clear, and I would spend time helping to achieve this. I
>>have in mind that bits of additional functionality, such as to enabling
>>deletion requests to be handled through the web interface, perhaps duplicate
>>flagging and package renaming would be useful and make the job of a TU easier.
>>Over time, I would investigate implementing things like this.
>>
>
> Awesome.
>

Awesome indeed. You could already have started, you don't need to be a
TU/DEV to write code for most of our projects. Good code will most
likely be accepted in any case. So not really a reason to become a TU
IMO.

>>Also on processes, I'm a bit of a geek for democratic stuff, constitutions and
>>bye-laws and things. I've worked with a couple of quite large democratic
>>organisations on their election and decision-making rules and would be
>>interested in helping to keep these working well for the good of Arch and us
>>all too. Again, it's important to get the rules right, but in addition to hard
>>rules, often establishing good etiquette is just as important (but IMO
>>preferably without going down the Ubuntu route of canned responses). I think
>>Arch people are good at this kind of thing, but I think it always helps to
>>have people who are interested in keeping things fresh.
>>
>
> I agree.
>
>>If there are any questions, I'm very happy to try to answer them.
>>
>
> Can I get your secret beer recipe?
>

mmm I like beer, especially free beer! I assume there is plenty for us
when we vote you in? :-p

Ronald