On participation

While reading the platforms for the upcoming DPL election, I read some statements about hearing from Project members about their experience within the Debian Project, so I took the chance to write some thoughts about my experience in one of our core teams, in which I have the privilege to be part of: the FTP Team.

During NM process, my Application Manager asked me about some activities I could have involved into once I became a Debian Developer. I was fascinated by the hard work of the FTP folks when processing NEW packages (and I guess everybody reading these lines agree with me, remembering the happines of reading that wonderful ACCEPTED mail for their very first contribution to Debian, I still have it in my mailbox), so I decided I wanted to help out those folks to share a portion of their hard work.

I committed errors, sometimes they were so silly I’d be better to hide, but the team helped me to solve the mess I created. The “thank you” and “kudos” messages the FTP Team receives greatly overtake the frustration for my mistakes, and give the strength to keep up the good work 🙂

FTP Team is just one of the dozens teams which do an awesome work for the Debian sake, every day. Don’t be shy, or worried of being unsuitable or not skilled enough for the role. You’ll never know until you try. And it could happen you really like the job, and you could feel sorry for have waited so long 😉