On 05/02/2012 05:34 AM, Horst H. von Brand wrote:
Vít Ondruch <vondruch@redhat.com> wrote:
Dne 26.4.2012 18:13, Alec Leamas napsal(a):
On 04/26/2012 05:49 PM, Michael Schwendt wrote:
On Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:32:17 +0200, AL (Alec) wrote:
[...]

I am thinking about some "dumping" repository, where people would dump
their packages and they would need almost no qualification. Of course
using such packages would be without any warranty. The packages would
not be owned by anybody, so everybody would improve them (or
eventually corrupt them ;)). Once somebody would be interested enough
to become official maintainer, he would apply to official review and
the package would get into official Fedora repo.
There are several personal repos around, this is sort of what you
propose.


Now, I didn't write those lines. But besides that, the personal repos miss the actual usecase: someone which is *not* heavily involved in the fedora packaging which comes up with an application which needs packaging and thus a packager (my initial idea). Or as in this case a package which might "work" without being properly reviewed.

I sort of like the "submit a provisional spec" approach. It will qualify the requests, and the requester will get some basic understanding making future communications with an upcoming packager easier. And, of course, there will be users out there using the provisional package. There might even be feedback.

Still, the basic approach would be a path for people involved in a Great Application out there to bring both the package and themselves into contact with a packager. From the packagers perspective, it would be a opportunity to find not only applications but also a qualified upstream contact. Despite the obstacles, many being listed in this thread, I see opportunities in this. One aspect is to not force people without motivation to become packagers - this might in turn decrease the pressure on sponsors. Jon's approach was a bugzilla request, something like a "Packaging request". For me this looks like a very reasonable starting point for "How?" (http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/devel/2012-April/166429.html)

Actually, I know examples of Great Applications which are now sitting in review queue submitted by people who are not likely to become packagers - the barrier is too high for them. This creates an extremely bad situation. The submitter eventually drops off, with the feeling that Fedora is... well, nothing nice. And the application becomes "blocked", since no other packager can "take over" the request. Yes, there are technical solution to this, but nothing acceptable from a social point of view in many cases.

Things would be so much better both for the submitter and the community if this had been handled differently.


--a