Reevaluating the "Ubuntu Contributing Developer" status

[Michael Bienia]

On 2011-10-06 12:04:11 -0400, Luke Faraone wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 10:25, Stephen M. Webb <stephen at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> >
> > Ubuntu Member: a recognized member of the Ubuntu community
> >
> > Ubuntu Developer: a Ubuntu Member who obtained their recognition through
> > contributing software development (patches, sponsored packages, whatever)
> >
> 
> I'm not sure there's a need for such a subset of Member which conveys no
> additional access. "Contributing Developer" is the only such category that I
> know of. Should we create an "Ubuntu Translator" group for those who
> obtained their recognition through contributing translations?

UCD dates back to the time when MOTU Council was granted the right to
grant Ubuntu membership. The idea for a subteam comes from Mark [1,2]
when it was discussed how the membership granting gets implemented for
the MC. 
UCD caused already once confusion[3] in the past and it was proposed to
merge UCD with ~ubuntumembers where Mark was against this idea[4] and
prefered to keep the subteams to be able to track which membership
granting council added a person[5].

UCD is in line with the other membership granting councils:
- Kubuntu council -> ~kubuntu-members
- Edubuntu council -> ~edubuntu-members
- Forum council -> ~ubuntu-forum-members
- IRC council -> ~ubuntu-irc-members
Only ~ubuntu-forum-members and ~ubuntu-irc-members seem to give
additional rights compared to ~ubuntumembers.

If translation contributions get their own council, it should IMHO get
moved into their own subteam.

Perhaps UCD should get renamed to "Ubuntu Development Members"
(~ubuntu-dev-members) to match the naming scheme of the other teams. But
I'm not sure if the difference to "Ubuntu Developers" will be clear
enough just from the team name.

Michael

1: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/motu-council/2008-March/000931.html
2: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/motu-council/2008-March/000933.html
3: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/technical-board/2010-March/000124.html
4: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/technical-board/2010-March/000137.html
5: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/technical-board/2010-March/000139.html