disabling version checks

[anarcat]

@damonlynch

It would be an enormous help if the Debian package was created promptly, without a delay such that getting it into Ubuntu 18.04 will be impossible. If the 0.9.9 Debian package will not be released for several weeks, then our discussion is moot, because it will be too late.

this is out of my control. What i can do is a “NMU” (non-maintainer upload, because i’m just the sponsor), which would kick in 10 days after my upload.