Debian is polling its developers on whether to permit or ban "AI" contributions.

https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2026/08/msg00002.html

@lproven debian has a ban on contributions in general, I have a few cool little command line utilities and programs I wanted to contribute and found out it would take a 3 year certification process where I had to travel around the world exchanging usb keys to be allowed to and would only succeed if , after it all, one of them was willing to 'bless' me.

I honestly have no idea how ANY of the packages in debian got there, but I can TOTALLY understand when projects host there own packages.

@RueNahcMohr @lproven I have contributed several things to Debian without becoming a Debian Maintainer or Developer. It really doesn't require any of the things mentioned.

@dos @lproven

..... so.... what the truth about it then?

@RueNahcMohr @dos

You were told earlier today, in this thread.

https://social.gl-como.it/display/3e3ce0df-156a-820f-9c4b-a0c112038808

What more do you want?

@lproven @dos no no, I was just told that was all gibberish folklore. and I dont think people socially hype-up a package and create a ruccas about it on *mailing lists* to get it inducted into debian.

@RueNahcMohr @dos 😡

@lproven @dos

ok, what is the last project you helped induct into debian?

@RueNahcMohr @lproven Many years ago I got my own unknown project packaged in Debian. All it took (aside of technical work) was to find a sponsor among Debian Developers to review and upload it. I got some feedback, applied it and into Debian it went. I've also contributed several patches to existing packages - the maintainer reviewed them, merged them and they're in Debian. It's really no different to any other respectable project out there, nobody gets full commit rights just because they ask.