Developer Application Criteria - Was Re: New Application processes

[Dustin Kirkland]

On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 6:22 PM, Robert Collins
<robertc at robertcollins.net> wrote:
> I completely agree. MOTU and core-dev membership is a combination of
> * technical knowledge [for which two key points apply: arbitrary
> have-done-X metrics don't assess any more reliably than peer assessment
> of the work done, and the knowledge ages rapidly as technologies change.
> Packaging of python today is not the same as it was 5 years ago].
> * trust - which is entirely subjective
> * fitting in the team - which can be assessed by who objects :)

Okay, so I'll restate my point in another way ...

If there is *no* objective component to MOTU/CoreDev application
assessment, then I don't think it's fair to make arbitrary,
*quantitative* criticisms on an application.

Criticisms of the form:
 * You haven't done enough merges
 * You haven't touched enough Universe packages
 * You haven't been a MOTU or Developer long enough
 * You haven't ...  enough ...
should be invalid.

These things are actually measurable, and we could very well set the
value of "enough".  If we are consciously choosing *not* to set these
values, I think it's totally unfair to criticize someone for not
achieving these arbitrary, dynamic, mystery thresholds.

:-Dustin