[Python-Dev] Enhanced tracker privileges for dangerjim to do triage.

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Lennart Regebro writes:

 > I'd say there is something wrong with the process. If a trusted
 > developer can't get somebody more privilege on the tracker by
 > saying that "I trust this guy", then a new process is needed.
 > That's it's too hard to get privileges in the Python development
 > community has been evident too long, I think.

It is entirely *not* evident to me that it's too hard to get
privileges in the Python development community (Python's development
process works -- and it works really well by comparison to 99% of the
processes out there).  And processes are delicate; they should be
changed only when the people involved in them have the time and
inclination to work on rebalancing them.

 > There is one privilege that should be hard to get: Permanent delete.
 > But being able to triage bugs isn't such a privilege. Heck, not even
 > commit access is, because of someone makes something bad, you can back
 > out the checkin.

Sure, but that's still *work*, and it's work for *somebody else*.  The
person who made the mistake is unlikely to detect it, and needs to be
told to fix it, if they even fix it themselves.

 > Giving people rights to a bugtracker or versioning system is not
 > dangerous, and should not be hard.

As someone who does a lot more managing of shared resources than
coding in the projects I'm active in, I disagree about the danger.
Enthusiastic newbies can do a lot of minor damage in a short period of
time, and cleaning that up is *work*.  This danger is almost entirely
mitigated by a small amount of mentoring -- which is precisely what
the current process requires -- not only of the recomending party, but
also of the existing workers.

I'm not claiming that the current balance is right.  Just that it's
not obvious that it's *wrong*, and therefore the decision should be
left up to the people who will do the mentoring, the supervision, and
-- if necessary -- the cleanup.  If the existing tracker crew is happy
with Sean's recommendation, and similar recommendations in the future,
I'm happy too.  But it is a process change, and they should be
comfortable with it.