[Mageia-dev] Package adoption campaign, 3 months later

Thu Dec 8 11:04:20 CET 2011

Hi,
+
+I consider the (first phase of) the adoption campaign finished, so here are some 
+stats about it, and an opening for discussion about what to do next.
+
+We had 4931 packages without a maintainer, we now have 2043, so I think we can 
+say that the campaign was a success in this regard : nearly 3000 source 
+packages have found a maintainer.
+
+See http://pkgsubmit.mageia.org/data/unmaintained.txt for the list of orphan 
+packages.
+
+Out of 57 packagers with submit rights (I might have missed a few that got 
+submit rights recently, but it wont change the results much):
+- 35 are now "full" (or even took too much packages)
+- 11 answered at some point that they were going to have a look at the list 
+and maybe grab more packages, but didn't give me feedback after that, even 
+after a new mail sent. We can suppose that they are now "full" too.
+- 6 are inactive (no packaging in months)
+- 5 well-known active packagers never answered in 3 months either to the 
+mailing list or to my direct mails (sent at @mageia.org addresses), which is a 
+bit disappointing considering the amount of time I put into this campaign, but 
+I want to thank the vast majority who was really willing to help in this 
+campaign. 
+
+The conclusion is that for most packagers the maintainers database is now up 
+to date, with maybe a few more orphan packages that could find a maintainer, 
+but not a lot.
+
+I would have liked that there be no need for such a campaign, but events 
+showed that there's a real need for someone who sends reminders to the mailing 
+lists, pings packagers, points out important orphan packages. Waiting for 
+things to solve themselves doesn't work :) However, this demands a lot of 
+energy and I would be glad if someone could replace me in this task, because I 
+lack time to develop Mageia App Db. I volunteered only because there was a gap 
+to fulfill, but would be glad to see someone else become the official Orphan 
+Packages Protector.
+
+His/her work would be the following:
+- identifiy (with bugsquad's help) the orphan packages that have lots of 
+unresolved bugs or are severely outdated,
+- do the same for packages that have a maintainer but are in a similar 
+situation,
+- try to find packagers or apprentices to take care of them. Not necessarily 
+make them become maintainer, but at least solve users bugs.
+- try to find maintainers for orphan packages.
+
+I'm willing to help with advice or tools but would like to not be the person 
+in charge, if possible, so that I can really make the Mageia App Db available 
+before Mageia 2.
+
+Does someone volunteer? It is a job that demands a lot of energy and 
+confidence, but I think it would be a really useful contribution. Bugsquad is 
+already doing part of this, but they have other duties, so someone dedicated 
+to this task could maybe help.
+
+Best regards
+
+Samuel Verschelde
+