Default method of candidate application: realtime IRC meeting vs mailing list

[Lukasz Zemczak]

Hello Dan!

Thank you for starting this discussion! We should always aim to make
the application process as easy and smooth as possible, so any
improvements we can do here are very valuable.

I personally would be very wary of making the e-mail route the
default, mainly because of my past experiences with e-mail application
handling. I understand that sometimes we had problems reaching quorum
on DMB meetings to handle assigned applications, but I think there
were only a few cases like these - and I'm rather confident that the
new rules regarding attendance will also help out in making this
situation better. However, when talking about e-mail applications, the
situation was far far much worse. We have a TERRIBLE history of e-mail
applications taking even months, with DMB members being unresponsive,
votes taking a very long time etc. Of course, maybe we could do it
better nowadays, sure. But sometimes good intentions and even well
defined rules are not enough. People are people and e-mail gets lost,
especially when everyone is really busy with work and life in overall.

So yeah, obviously I would be a bit -0.5 on this idea, since I'm
worried this will not make things better for candidates. At best it
would make it better for DMB members, which is less important in my
eyes.

>From other cons that I can see is that, even though e-mail
applications are fine, there is a certain charm in getting to know a
candidate better by just directly interacting with them. If you don't
know the person yet, this is a good moment to see and get a better
'feel' about their character. So as said, not as of a big issue, but I
think walking in real-time with someone can be helpful.
The plus side of e-mail applications iso is the flexibility, as both
the candidates and DMB members aren't tightly bound by any specific
date. But then again, the application still needs to be handled in a
timely fashion, and I think adding the ability of requesting special
'dates' by candidates might work equally well.

I'd like to hear other people's opinions.

Cheers,

On Mon, 13 Dec 2021 at 15:23, Dan Streetman <ddstreet at canonical.com> wrote:
>
> During previous ML discussion, it was suggested that the DMB might
> consider changing the default method of new candidate application from
> the current required realtime IRC meeting application, over to (by
> default) application and voting over email on the DMB ML.
>
> This email is to start ML discussion on the topic. Can any DMB member,
> or any member of the public, who has an opinion on the topic please
> respond to this email with your input? Specifically, any opinions
> and/or comments on whether you would prefer to keep realtime IRC
> meeting applications as the "default" method, or whether you would
> prefer changing the "default" method of applications to emails using
> the devel-permissions ML.
>
> Thanks.
>
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-- 
Łukasz 'sil2100' Zemczak
 Foundations Team
 lukasz.zemczak at canonical.com
 www.canonical.com