Star Developers

If you have been active in the community (or want to be) and are an active maintainer of snaps, read on! As we gain more publishers and active users in the Snap Store, we wanted a way to celebrate active members of the community. Star Developers have been created for this purpose. Publishers that have an existing contribution to snaps and the community can apply to be a Star Developer and get a by their name on snapcraft. You’ll be able to see the Star icon on all the snaps of that publisher, showing that they are of high quality, coming from a dependable author. This policy explains what you need to do if you’d like to apply to be a Star Developer.

Steps to become a Star Developer

  1. Start a new post in the forum, using the policy-requests category. In the post, state that you’d like to be a Star Developer and list some of the ways that you have been an active member of the community. We do not have requirements on how much community engagement you have made - this isn’t a test :slight_smile: This could include (but is not limited to):
  • Which ways you are active in the snap community (or perhaps in the Ubuntu or another open source community)
  • The number of snaps you have published and/or maintained
  • Any other ways that you have used snaps
  1. Members of the @policy-reviewers group will review and add any comments they have. If there are any questions from the reviewers, they will start a discussion on the post and may make suggestions of some ways you can get more involved with the community. This is meant to be an open, constructive, friendly process :slight_smile:
  2. If at least 2 members of the @policy-reviewers group review, leave their feedback and approve, then voilà! You are now a star developer. You will be a trusted community member and other users may rely on your feedback in the forum and your dependable, maintained snaps.
  3. The list of Star Developers will be reviewed periodically to ensure that Star Developers are still maintaining their snaps and being responsible members of the community. If there is any behaviour in the forum that is negative, inappropriate or not supportive of others, then we will open a discussion and may revoke the status.

Some key points to highlight:

  • The idea behind this feature is to celebrate and highlight active, responsible participants of the community, as sources that others can trust to deliver high quality snaps and support each other. Any behaviour in the forum that is not supportive of others or is inappropriate can lead to Star Developer status being revoked.
  • Star Developer status is for individual publishers that have maintained a number of snaps or been active in the community. If you are publishing snaps on behalf of an institution, foundation or company that has worked, collaborated or partnered with us, a Verified Account may be more suitable. You can find the policy for Verified Accounts here.
  • The team reviewing the Star Developer requests work on various areas within Canonical, including product, engineering, community and advocacy. You can see the reviewers in the @policy-reviewers group in the forum. In addition, as the feature grows we would like members of the community to be involved too! Please reach out to us in the forums if you are an active member of the community and would like to become a policy reviewer.
  • By being a Star Developer, you accept the responsibility and additional trust placed in you by others. You will be a representative member of the community that others may look to for feedback, with trusted snaps visible in the Store.
  • We are always welcome to hear feedback! Please get in touch with us if you have any questions or would like to discuss anything about Star Developers.
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