The ability to obtain auto voice in #gentoo-dev appears to be a vague process. Not only that but from the discussions I've seen there seems to be confusion around why the must be voiced/opped to speak restrictions are still in place. Both of these points make it difficult for those who wish to contribute to get access to the channel for getting more in depth answers. As an example I spent about a week dealing with compile testing for bug #590244 along with currently looking at helping with stabilization of python 3.5. Even with this in mind I still often have to ask around for voice in -dev via #gentoo-dev-help whenever I reconnect. I asked in #gentoo-groupcontact when directed there but the channel doesn't seem active to be honest and I'm still without auto-voice. While this is my personal example I wouldn't be surprised if it affected others as well. With that in mind I propose one of the following: 1. Re-evaluation of the moderation levels in the channel, possible to something more loose like registered users only 2. A clearly documented process on how to get autovoice in -dev (helped on X number of bugs maybe?), including people who are willingly able to be available as contacts for the process Please note that these are at the moment proposal and I'm open to discuss any questions/concerns.
I've granted you auto-voice in #gentoo-dev. I'm taking responsibility for this as we're assuming you're our old developer Chris White. About the moderation rules, #gentoo-dev has been moderated ever before I joined (2006). You were unlucky when you poked #gentoo-group-contacts as I keep a regular presence there and failed to notice your poke. For any issues with the Freenode group contacts, feel free to poke me directly and I'll try to get back asap. Currently, the rule to get auto-voice is to get the approval by ComRel or by group contacts. All former devs may request auto-voice when they leave and that request will be evaluated by the ComRel team. For anyone new trying to help the project, start working with Gentoo developers and after a while whether you apply to become a developer or your contributions get noted, someone will ask us to grant you auto-voice.
(In reply to Chris White from comment #0) > 1. Re-evaluation of the moderation levels in the channel, possible to > something more loose like registered users only I am strongly in favour of this. The only "arguments" I've see in favour of continued moderation are: 1. It's always been like that 2. A user might ask an off-topic question in the channel In my opinion, these are poor arguments and only serve raise the barrier of contribution.
(In reply to Michael Palimaka (kensington) from comment #2) > (In reply to Chris White from comment #0) > > 1. Re-evaluation of the moderation levels in the channel, possible to > > something more loose like registered users only > > I am strongly in favour of this. The only "arguments" I've see in favour of > continued moderation are: > > 1. It's always been like that > 2. A user might ask an off-topic question in the channel > > In my opinion, these are poor arguments and only serve raise the barrier of > contribution. If you want to change the moderation level on #gentoo-dev, please get an agreement from a significant part of the developer community and we can change it. I suggest having this discussion in the project ml.
I'm not on any of the mailing lists so I'll put my opinion on the moderation level here. Of course (though a former official dev) not being an official dev I understand it'll be taken for what it's worth. As someone who is checking bugzilla quite often, as well as seeing interactions in various gentoo IRC channels it's apparent that there is a reasonable burden on maintaining the portage tree. With that in mind I think that Gentoo Linux as a whole would benefit from being a bit more open with communications. I realize that long standing rules changing are going to have some form of unease, but with it comes the potential benefit of getting more people on to help. Removing the strict level of moderation does produce the potential for bringing in some form of noise. That said I think it's an acceptable risk if that means getting more people able to contribute to helping with the burden of maintaining certain parts of the tree. It would also help in giving proxy maintainers a place to talk with all of the devs as well. Any rate, that's my two cents on the issue.
