[Mageia-dev] In need of a mentor

Thu Feb 16 05:16:00 CET 2012

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 offer to Kyle to be withdrawn, he sounds like he will be an asset to 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
+