Developer Application Board

[Michael Bienia]

On 2009-07-15 12:53:05 +0100, Colin Watson wrote:
> To date this has been true for the TB. It's caused a number of practical
> problems, though; the meeting format for interviews is very
> high-pressure for candidates, and this often doesn't produce good
> results (indeed in some cases it's resulted in explosive
> confrontations). We also often find ourselves far too rushed. I think
> consensus in the TB at the moment is that we would probably do a better
> job with an e-mail format, where both sides could consider questions and
> answers at slightly more length.
> 
> I understand the desire for transparency too. Perhaps the answer there
> is to have a public summary of the conversations involved in all
> successful applications (could even be an attached mail thread, with
> consent)? I'm not sure what to do with failed applications; I think we
> generally ought to strive to let everyone know what we've been doing,
> but on the other hand I feel that the candidate ought to have the
> opportunity to consent to us telling the world that we didn't want them
> to be a developer just yet.
 
Will there be any public announcements about applications (even if the
following discussion will be private)? So other developers (or other
interested parties) can sent their support or objections to one
applicant to the board.

It's also my impression that IRC meetings doesn't seem to the best way
to ask the applicant question about some (deep) knowlegde as there isn't
much time to look for answers (or think about them). Waiting e.g. 5 min
on an answer will make the meetings very long or only one applicant
processed in one hour. But such questions can be done before a meeting
so that the meeting only covers some last minute questions and a
deciscion.
But I'm also not sure if e-mail voting is the best way either. The MC
has tried that in the past and the result was that it took weeks to
collect all votes from the MC. And as I read in some TB meeting irc
logs, some agenda items were postponed to the next meeting (or to
e-mail) as not everybody had the time to read an e-mail.
How will the new board address the issue of stalled applications because
of e-mail backlog? (But perhaps the new board won't have that problem at
all). And what's the expected time from application to a decision
(assuming the applicant answers the questions timely)?

Michael