My Debian activity currently is restricted to the packages I do maintain and those I choose to maintain. I am here to support new and existing upstream projects I have built great working relationships with over years. I would feel extremely bad if I abandoned these good people.
Debian Mentors was a great passion. I was privileged to mentor and assist in other ways, new contributors and those building up their reputation within the project as a whole. I am sad to say that I shall not be returning to Debian Mentors while I see bullying and discrimination by a minority within the Debian Project. I can only apologise to those who will now wait months for any help within Debian Mentors.
I do contribute to the Debian Project, but I do not align myself with the project, I am independent.
graphviz is a large mature project primarily coded in C. Sadly the current maintainer is not using the graphviz Salsa repository that already exists in the debian group.
This current situation is restricting any chance of collaborative development/maintenance of the package. This really needs to be rectified.
Update: 2025-09-07
For context, I filed the bug below in November 2024.
Since deciding to stop Debian contribution in the area of Debian Mentors, I have not been idle. I have been doing commits for packages I maintain and also contribute to i.e. upstream projects and other activities that include Ubuntu bug squashing etc.
With my disabilities, it is important to face challenges be they during my daily activities or within the Free/Open Source Software community. These challenges are hard, fun and make me feel useful.
A change long wanted by me. dh_dwz not to be run by default in debhelper compat 14. This I am sure will result in system speed increases, but only time and testing will tell.
Simple question to ask and answer. mock is a far more straightforward system versus the likes of sbuild. The Debian Project always finds a way of making the simplest of things extremely complicated.
The point missed by the Community Team, Debian Project Leader (DPL) and the Application Managers.
Why was my DD application ignored for seven months while people who applied after me were allocated Application Managers and one given a ten day fast track journey through the process?
My DD application has been closed by the Application Managers with no chance of applying again in the future. The DPL has agreed with this decision.
I have asked to appeal the decision, but have yet to get a response.
Update 2025-07-31
Hi Phil,
On Mon, Jul 21, 2025 at 08:17:39PM +0100, Phil Wyett wrote:
> This is a formal request for an appeal hearing (with a witness for me) regarding my less favourable treatment by the Debian Application Managers.
There is no mechanism for appeal by a prospective Developer, save for the general provisions to override a delegate set out in our constitution.
This matter is closed, and I would ask you not to contact DAMs directly or through the da-manager@debian.org address any further.
Thanks,
--
Jonathan Wiltshire jmw@debian.org
Debian Developer http://people.debian.org/~jmw
The Debian Account Managers (DAM) have discussed your most recent application and decided that it will not go forward.
Your interactions in private are very different from those in public forums such as the debian-mentors mailing list. We do not have sufficient confidence that you can work construtively within our community to advance the goals in our Foundation Documents or show the required respect for the Project and its members.
We are not prepared to consider a further application from you in the future.
For the DAMs:
Joerg Jaspert
Nicolas Dandrimot
Jonathan Wiltshire
Stuart Prescott
--
Jonathan Wiltshire jmw@debian.org
Debian Developer http://people.debian.org/~jmw
