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.
You were told earlier today, in this thread.
https://social.gl-como.it/display/3e3ce0df-156a-820f-9c4b-a0c112038808
What more do you want?
@RueNahcMohr @lproven What you described in your initial post was a path to become a trusted person with direct upload rights to the distribution archive, *not* a requirement to contribute. Debian Maintainers can upload new versions of packages they maintain without having a sponsor, Debian Developers can upload anything. You need to have already contributed for a while in order to become any of them, and I think you'll agree that it's a reasonable requirement.
@dos @lproven sure, but I'm just a guy with main.c and no interest in certifying myself as a maintainer of the whole debian distribution.
so how did you find a sponsor?