Distributions [LWN.net]
Debian and Ubuntu have a set of official membership roles that can be granted to regular contributors. Those roles come with rights that enable the contributors to do their work and to participate in the project governance (elections and other official decision-making processes). It's also a way for the distributions to acknowledge the work done: most contributors are proud of the status they reached.
![Validate my Atom 1.0 feed [Valid Atom 1.0]](http://derocher.org/Content/Badges/valid-atom.png)