Do you monitor your Python packages in inux distributions?

[skip at pobox.com]

I'm one of the SpamBayes developers and in a half-assed way try to keep
track of SB dribbles on the net via a saved Google search.  About a month
ago I got a hit on an Ubuntu bug tracker about a SpamBayes bug.  As it turns
out, Ubuntu distributes an outdated (read: no longer maintained) version of
SpamBayes.  The bug had been fixed over three years ago in the current
version.  Had I known this I could probably have saved them some trouble, at
least by suggesting that they upgrade.

I have a question for you people who develop and maintain Python-based
packages.  How closely, if at all, do you monitor the bug trackers of Linux
distributions (or Linux-like packaging systems like MacPorts) for activity
related to your packages?  How do you encourage such projects to push bug
reports and/or fixes upstream to you?  What tools are out there to discover
which Linux distributions have SpamBayes packages?  (I know about
rpmfind.net, but there must be other similar sites by now.)

Thx,

-- 
Skip Montanaro - skip at pobox.com - http://www.smontanaro.net/