[csw-maintainers] Mutt and general release policy

[Dagobert Michelsen]

Hi Phil,

Am 23.09.2010 um 23:04 schrieb Philip Brown:
>> The (open) question is what is the most common use case.
>
> Yup, i agree.
> Any suggestions for resolution? polling our users list? or the mutt
> users list perhaps?

I'll do some more research among mutt users.

> well, I dont deeply dig into Every package, Every time.
> This release I happened to have more time to dig. Lucky you ;-)
> I dont think "well, we made a mistake a while back, so lets stick with
> it" is best policy. I think we should better determine, "was it a
> mistake to do this?"

Right. But in the meantime the submitted package should be
released. It is in package quality not worse than what we have
and better in terms of currentness. The release check should
focus on technical things and proper functioning, not package
usecases. These are very welcome to be checked and discussed
on maintainers@, but it should not be possible to block a
maintainer from releasing a proper working package just
because the release manager thinks that specific issues
done in the past are wrong now or just need more research.
This has caused much frustration in the past. You will
say that a maintainer who is not willing to work with
the release manager to resolve this is not worthy to
be a maintainer. I say the release manager should
not have the power to force a maintainer to change
or investigate these package-specific things.

Don't get me wrong: I appreciate your (as "Phil")
commitment and care about the packages. However,
we need to differentiate between your work as
team member among the maintainer, which are valued
and your concerns and suggestions about the location
are a good source of inspiration, and your
power as release manager. You are IMHO misusing
your power as release manager in this case to force
discussion you drive as team member.


Best regards

   -- Dago