Merges - Pinging Previous Uploaders

[Scott Kitterman]

On Saturday 14 July 2007 00:35, Jordan Mantha wrote:
> On Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 11:09:11PM -0400, Scott Kitterman wrote:
> > On Friday 13 July 2007 22:47, Andy Price wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
> > Right.  That's not the problem we've had though.  The problem we've had
> > is people doing merges right away without bothering to check at all. 
> > I've also personally experienced significant pushback when I questioned
> > them doing that.  I disagree that's the clear problem case.  The clear
> > problem case is people not respecting other people's merges.
>
> Other people's merges? Nobody "owns" anything in MOTU. We are a team. We
> take care of Universe and whatever needs to be done. MOTU is the
> maintainer, not individuals. If a merge is decently documented then there
> should be *no* problem with another MOTU merging it later on for the vast
> vast majority of packages. If there is then there's something else going
> wrong.
>
I agree that nobody owns anything, but many/most/all of us have certain 
packages that we focus on.  

From a technical perspective I think you are right for most packages.  For me 
it's more about the exceptions and about respecting other's contributions/ 
being polite.

There's no way to really know what those exceptions are.  If familiarity with 
the package is essential to knowing how to merge it, someone who is 
unfamiliar is unlikely to understand the risks.

Additionally, I just think it's the polite thing to do.  If someone has 
invested effort in a package by merging/fixing it previously, it respects 
that effort to ask them if they mind you taking on the next round.

There are certainly times when it's not reasonable to expect, but when I 
showed up and started doing merges, I was told to ask and I think that, in 
general, it's a good policy.

Scott K