Introduction to the ubuntu-bugsquad team

Reinhard Tartler siretart at ubuntu.com
Tue May 27 07:29:30 UTC 2008


Dear bugsquad team,

After having reread my recent contribution to this mailing list (like
[6]), and considering the answers (and lack of answers, [4], to some
extend [5] as well). I've come to the conclusion that my posts and their
tone may not have been appropriate for this mailing list. I regret if
they have been perceived as if I would imply that the bugsquad was not
doing a great job when working on bugs, as implied by [1]. Contrary, we
definitly need help on bugs. But I have concerns about what I have
perceived while working on bugs in the past.


In order to return to a more friendly atmosphere, I've decided to do a
short introduction of myself to this mailing list. I'm Reinhard Tartler,
joined to ubuntu around the hoary cycle, became Core-dev at UDS in
Montreal (the UDS for the dapper cycle). 

My wiki page:

 * https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReinhardTartler

I have been interviewed by behindubuntu.com:

 * http://behindubuntu.org/interviews/ReinhardTartler/

My work on launchpad bugs so far:

 * https://bugs.launchpad.net/~siretart

Packages I have touched in the past in ubuntu:

 * https://edge.launchpad.net/~siretart/+packages

Nowadays I'm also a Debian Developers as well, where I care for bugs as
well. The list of packages I (co-)maintain there can be seen here:

 * http://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=siretart@tauware.de

As you might now, there is nothing remotely similar to the bugsquad team
in Debian. We do have a QA Team in debian, but that team mainly cares
for so-called "orphaned" packages. Their work consists on working on
bugs on that packages, but also on fixing bugs there. They are probably
most comparable to the MOTU team in ubuntu.

Since I switch a lot between these two communities, I found it
increasingly difficult to follow changes to procedures and rules to
follow. That's one of my biggest concern while working on ubuntu stuff
in general: I think our documentation on workflow is way too instable
and changes too often without proper announcements. And I really do
consider watching a wiki for changes unacceptable to expect from
developers. Especially for volunteer developers like me, but for
canonical employees as well.

While talking to various people at UDS in Prague, it seems that I'm not
alone on this. There was a session about this at UDS, called
policy-and-standards. I do hope that the bugsquad team will contribute
to the Ubuntu Developers Reference as a way to indicate how developers
can successfully interact with the bugsquad team. [2]


In my opinion, there has been a lot of miscommunication in the past. Not
only on this mailing list, but also on IRC and in malone. Heck, we are
even miscommunicating when talking about miscommunication, as seen in
e.g. in [1] and [3]. I'm going now a step back and will rethink the next
days how this can be improved. Most preferably without not contributing
at all to this mailing list.

As a first step, I've signed up to this mailing list via mailman
properly (I used to lurk here using gmane, but the email obfuscation is
too annoying. Was that really necessary?), and wrote this introduction
mail. I do hope I'll get some positive reposonse and that we find a way
to work with each other.


Thanks for your attention and please accept my apologies if my mails
have been perceived as unproductive.


Footnotes:

[1]
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-bugsquad/2008-May/000886.html

[2]
At that session the Ubuntu Developers Reference was discussed as an
rewrite of the Debian Developers Reference for ubuntu. IIRC, Collin has
volunteered to create a first draft, and I expect that he will announce
the document when it is in a presentable state. Short: That document
does not exist yet, but I think we desperately need it.

[3]
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-bugsquad/2008-May/000880.html

[4]
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-bugsquad/2008-May/000863.html

[5]
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-bugsquad/2008-May/000865.html

[6]
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-bugsquad/2008-May/000877.html

-- 
Gruesse/greetings,
Reinhard Tartler, KeyID 945348A4




More information about the Ubuntu-bugsquad mailing list