applying for MOTU membership

[Aron Sisak]

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Hi Stefan et. al.,

Stefan, you ask harder and harder questions. :-)

> Well, I don't plainly buy the argument, that having "random new
> packages" is all that bad. Getting in pet packages is imo an
> incentive for hopefuls to contribute to ubuntu in the first place
> (and it was definitely nice for me to see my first "own" package in
>  the archive). Nonetheless I believe that Sarah is right in the
> mail you quote that we end up with a number of packages in the
> archive which aren't properly cared for in the long run. Also bug
> fixing as you wrote is always a needed as well.
Sorry, I don't wanted to offend anyone. I just wanted to say that this is
an important area where MOTU(-wannabes) and Desktop Team can cooperate...

> Now what do you believe are the main reasons that hopefuls rather
> bring in new packages than fix existing ones? What could you do to
>  motivate people to spend more time fixing bugs and less on
> bringing in random new packages?
Actually doing more difficult work with the same result might be hard to
motivate. I mean creating / updating a package can be fairly simple,
in contrast to fixing a bug (and applying the patch and updating the
package). I guess it is in fact it is based on the good old "coding is
fun" vs. "fixing bugs is not fun" problem.

If you did some bug triaging, you might get the idea that "fixing
bugs can be fun" as well. Now with some package updates behind me, I feel
motivated to create packages with bug fixes. Maybe because solving
(even) more complex tasks is fun. Of course there are also bugs with
patches that "only" need to be packaged.

These are my own motivations and have hardly any idea how to motivate
others. Mentoring can prove useful. At least I often feel like
"doing something" I cannot do (yet). But with a mentor this can be
possible. Some kind of "MOTU Hug Day" could also be nice. I have had
the feeling concerning recent Hug Days (held on #ubuntu-devel) that
beginners are not motivated enough to fix bugs.

- --
Áron Sisak

aron at ubuntu.hu
asisak / coNP @ irc.freenode.net
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