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There have been a few times I've wondered about things which are not strictly related to Unix or Linux as software, but about the social and corporate eco system which supports it.

One such example might be to ask "Are developers with no prior experience as a package maintainer allowed to publish their own software through Debian?".

My point is whether questions about the organisation "Debian" are on-topic or not? And what, if any, is the boundary when questions spill over into topics of organisation and culture related to Unix and Linux?

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    Huh. Good question. My knee-jerk reaction is that no, that wouldn't be on topic since it isn't really about the OS itself. Let's see what other people think though.
    – terdon Mod
    Commented Jan 27, 2022 at 13:00
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    I would tend to agree with terdon here. Questions about the inner administrative routines of distribution teams might possibly be on-topic on distribution-specific sites (e.g. askubuntu). These questions are not really related to the use and administration of Unix & Linux systems though. On the other hand, if a user is trying to package some software for e.g. OpenBSD or Arch Linux, and finds issues that relate to tools and tool usage (not policy-related), then those tool questions may be brought here.
    – Kusalananda Mod
    Commented Jan 27, 2022 at 13:17
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    Hmmm. Now I'm wondering about opensource.stackexchange.com aparently it just left beta opensource.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/890/…
    – Philip Couling
    Commented Jan 27, 2022 at 14:34
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    opensource.SE at least has How can I get my program into a Linux distribution (Debian)?, which seems kinda on the same subject. Not that the What topics can I ask about here? there really gives that much space for processes of individual organisations unless "how communities collaborate together to produce, distribute, market and sometimes monetize these projects" fits the bill. It seems to be more about philosophies and licenses.
    – ilkkachu
    Commented Jan 29, 2022 at 11:35

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As two of our esteemed moderators have said, I think questions explicitly about processes are off-topic here. As you mention yourself, Open Source might be a better fit.

However there are questions here about how, rather than whether; for example, How to add a package to all Debian distros? These are perhaps borderline but they’ve never drawn negative reactions in my experience.

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