Understanding the definitions and expectations of our membership processes

[Chase Douglas]

On 07/29/2011 11:24 AM, Jordon Bedwell wrote:
> Hola,
> 
> On Fri, July 29, 2011 11:01 am, Michael Bienia wrote:
>> This leads to the next question: how much do you trust the person
>> writing the endorsement?
>>
>> Of course I trust endorsements from long-standing dev members with a
>> great reputation where I trust their ability to judge the packaging
>> skills and trustworthiness of the applicant. But should I apply the same
>> trust to e.g. a dev member who got accepted himself a month ago?
> 
> Why should you not trust that persons judgement unless there is compelling
> reason to believe their judgement should not be trusted.  It seems
> counter-intuitive to okay them for inclusion and then default on your own
> judgement of them by not trusting them without a very good reason to not
> trust them.
> 
> Yes, it's just fine to review an endorsement they give, like any open
> ecosystem would and does currently do, but flat out not trusting their
> judgement seems like you feel they don't belong there in the first place
> which leads to two questions: Why did you okay them them for inclusion at
> all if you aren't going to trust their judgement on skill?  Why would you
> okay him/her for inclusion if you have any reasonable doubt about their
> judgement on skill?

I think I may understand where Michael is coming from. If, for example,
I endorse someone based on their Python skills, that endorsement should
be near meaningless since I don't really know Python. If the application
reviewer doesn't know me, they might not realize this.

However, an application reviewer should be able to look up an unknown
endorser's credentials fairly readily. If you can't find any through a
glance at the endorser's LP page, Ubuntu wiki page, or Google search,
then I think it's fair to give up and not count that endorsement.

This can also be extrapolated beyond specific developer skills to more
subjective criteria like trustworthiness. For example, if an endorser is
a Core Dev, then their endorsement of the trustworthiness of an
applicant for upload rights should be valid even if the reviewer and
endorser don't know each other.

-- Chase