mc and me

[Egmont Koblinger <egmont gmail com>]

Hi guys,

I've been thinking about writing something like this for quite a long time...

Some of you might know that I like contributing to various open source
projects as a hobby.  Some of you might know what my top hobby project
is.  mc is the second in the line.

Recently I've devoted a much bigger portion of my hobby time to that
other project (gnome-terminal/vte), probably mostly because I'm
welcome there.  I have git access (I didn't request, they recommended
it to me), I can submit the trivial changes straight away, while I
still ask the main developer's opinion on bigger ones.  Sometimes we
disagree, I try to convince him, but if I fail, it's his choice.
Sometimes he reverts a patch that he disagrees with.  Despite these,
contributing there is fun.

We've talked a lot about the development process not being anywhere
near as smooth as it should be.  On one hand there's noone to blame:
it's just a bunch of guys all spending their free time on the project.
On the other hand: I think it would be the responsibility of the
current developers to allow others to contribute more easily, and step
out of the way if they're the bottleneck.

I think I have contributed quite some useful features and generally
good quality code, and hope that I could build up certain reputation
and trust in the team.  Some guys here have already recommended that I
get git access, although I never asked.

The time has come.  The current way of so slowly getting feedback or
acceptance on my contributions is not going to work anymore.  I'm
tired of this, really tired.  I'm happy to contribute as long as it's
fun.  Probably #3534 comment 18 was the last straw (a one-character
change probably not making it into the next release).  No, I didn't
get offended, I didn't take it personally.  It could have been the
lack of feedback on any other ticket, there's been so many recently.

I just realized it doesn't work.  I realized it's no longer fun.

The question is: backwards, or forwards?

Hereby I'm requesting to become a member of the team, with git access,
getting to know the development process, policies (e.g. which changes
require approval, when to git branch, etc.), and requesting to get
faster responses to my patches that require review – or to be able to
submit them if I don't get response in a certain amount of time.  (We
can still revert a change later if someone disagrees.)

I'm sorry, but next to a full-time job, another hobby coding project,
and some weird thing called life, I'd like to make it clear that I
can't take on any responsibility.  I'm happy to help and improve mc
whenever/wherever I feel like, keep doing what I did so far and do
even more, but without obligations.  Can you guys make it easier for
me?  Do you trust me enough?

If so, let's move forward!

If not, I'll replace mc by another hobby where I have much more fun.

Thanks a lot,
egmont