Remember when sponsoring packages was implemented in Debian? Imagine if we had felt the need to vote on whether we were allowed to do that. Instead of just doing it.
I'll bet that some people would have argued against, citing reasons such as:
It appears to me that the sponsorship as sketched in the GR is mainly meant to let NMs upload earlier, i.e. it tries to fix the fact that front-desk or DAM approval take too long. I think the fix for that is just to find someone besides Joerg to also read the AM reports. Sponsees as in the GR are a workaround, not a solution.
or:
But the GR micro-manages too much and on the other hand doesn’t make the current NM process any easier for Sponsees than for any non-Sponsee applicant to the NM process. Also, like some others said before, I seriously doubt that a big part of the current DD-applicants (i.e. those in the NM queue at some level) would prefer Sponsee status over DD status.
What is the difference between a Sponsee and a Debian Developer? Who is interested in becoming a Sponsee and not a Debian Developer and why? Will this Sponsee class really improve the situation for New Maintainers?
or:
I suppose most of our New Maintainers will aim to become a Sponsee just to bridge the time until they’re full Debian Developers. And I predict that this is also the major target audience for this new Sponsee class. Some people said on -vote that there are people actually interested in becoming a Sponsee and not a Debian Developer. Personally I find their reasons questionable, but after all I suppose there won’t be many people going this route. On the other side, I don’t see how this new class enhances the situation for the New Maintainers. Now they not only wait for the Application Manager, Front Desk and Debian Account Managers — No, now they will also search for someone who sponsors them.
So my question is: If this General Resolution mainly helps New Maintainers, why must it be so complicated? Why another class of contributers, all those complicated rules to set it up and this additional layer of bureaucracy?
or:
If you think the NM process is taking too long, then it's probably better to help out there rather than to try to create a system to bypass it in this way.
But instead, we somehow made the enormous change that sponsorship entailed in how Debian works, without voting on it. Make no mistake, it was a big change on both a technical as well as a social level.
Now IMHO, the DM proposal is just fixing a bug in the current sponsorship process. The interesting thing to consider is, if this vote fails, how can the bug be fixed without another vote? I personally believe that any DD has the power to fix this without dragging the project through a vote. They may put their status as developer at stake in fixing it, if they take what seems like the obvious approach, but if one feels that this bug in sponsorship is a bad enough bug and is hurting Debian enough, that might be worth it.