On 4/26/23 08:42, Kevin Kofler via devel wrote:
As I see it, the main roadblocks for new packagers are: * accepting the FPCA, * getting sponsored, * learning the Packaging Guidelines, and * getting their package(s) through review, and that last point can be a roadblock even for existing packagers (because we do not trust even experienced provenpackagers and/or packager sponsors to review their own packages).
I agree with Kevin on these being much larger roadblocks than e-mail vs. forums.
I also contribute to another distribution, and they accept pull requests on GitHub with the standard git Signed-Off-By tag (i.e., nothing like the FPCA to agree to, no sponsorship needed, really no commitment of any kind needed - just send a PR and wait for someone to review/merge it. It's super easy, barely an inconvenience!) For those who aren't keen on GitHub, the same distro also accepts patches to their mailing list as long as you do the same Signed-Off-By tag. I've found contributing there to be quite easy.
I harbor doubt that changing to a web forum will make a notable difference in technical contributions to this project (the sorts of things that this list is about). I don't carry that doubt about many parts of the Fedora community, so I mean here to focus specifically on what this specific list, devel, is usually about.
I do think we can do a lot to lower that barrier to entry for new comers regarding the things Kevin is talking about, though I suppose the FPCA thing can only be relaxed with lawyer permission. I think it's possible to mirror to GitHub and require FPCA (if we really must have it) - I've seen a few projects on GitHub that had a mechanism to enforce agreeing to a document before they would accept PRs. Loads of people have a GitHub account already and it would be much easier for them than having a FAS account (the other distro I contribute to doesn't require contributors to have an account, though I do).
I think reviewing code is a healthy practice. One thing I've always thought was a little weird is that we only require new packages to be reviewed, but after that the packager can do anything. I guess I've always assumed that this was more about getting a second person to agree to the license/patent implications of the package, and probably not the code itself (since that will change over time without further review). I guess if that's why it kinda makes sense.
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