IRC presence requirements

[Emmet Hikory]

Daniel Holbach wrote:
> Demanding IRC presence of MOTUs or MOTU applicants is something I'm not
> very happy about. We have contributors who work with us via email and
> bug reports and that's fine.

    While I'm not authoritative, I'd much prefer that members of
ubuntu-dev (MOTU + Core) maintain an IRC presence, as there is a vast
amount of the coordination that happens on IRC, with decisions
possibly undocumented, or included only in package changelogs, etc.
Speaking from personal experience, when I do not maintain an IRC
presence, I am not confident of current activities, even if I do read
the mailing lists, maintain subscriptions to bugs (and read the
bugmail), follow planet, read all the changelogs of uploads of
packages I use, and subscribe to reasonable chunks of the wiki.
Alternately, IRC requirements can be as little as an hour or two a
day: when there is an issue that affects me, or on which my input is
encouraged, I usually get an IRC ping shortly after entering a
relevant channel, even when I'm not very active.

    Separately, I do agree that there are a number of very valuable
contributors who work with us via email, bug reports, and blog
postings, and I'd not like to see their contributions belittled: I'm
just not sure that unrestricted upload is appropriate for these
parties: the sponsoring queues exist in part to ensure that there is
appropriate coordination, and by maintaining IRC presence, sponsors
are often able to share the results of such communication with
disconnected contributors.

    Specifically, for those who are applying or intend to apply for
MOTU, my opinion stated above is not authoritative, and does not
indicate a position of MOTU Council: until otherwise indicated by a
member of council, do not feel that this is an additional requirement
(although it can be a good way to interact with the community).

-- 
Emmet HIKORY