Re: RFD: amendment of Debian Social Contract
On Sun, 2 Nov 2003 04:18:19 -0500, Branden Robinson <branden@debian.org> said:
> It would mean people didn't want the Project compelled by its Social
> Contract to distribute non-free forever and ever.
> It wouldn't necessarily mean that the Project would think
> distributing non-free now *isn't* a good idea.
> You have accused me elsewhere on this list of treating the
> developers as dumb sheep who aren't capable of discerning when
> they're being tricked, imply that you do not share this opinion, and
> yet you think they're going to misunderstand the following?
> 13) Clause 5 has been stricken entirely. *This amendment does NOT
> mandate the removal of the non-free section from anything,
> anywhere.* What it does do is withdraw our commitment to
> provide a "non-free section" via a File Transfer Protocol
> (FTP) archive specifically. This makes it possible for us to
> decide, in the near or distant future, to stop distributing
> the non-free section without violating our own Social
> Contract.
This by itself does not matter as much as you think it does,
since the voter has no choice here. Heck, I know that the rationale
said that, but it does not affect my intent. So, people
overwhelmingly voting to remove clause 5 would still mean a mandate
for removal of non free. Now, if this were part of the ballot; if I
could chose
a) remove clause 5, but do not remove non-free from the archive
b) remove clause 5, and clear the way to remove non-free as well
then yes, we can remove clause 5, and clearly know whether or
not there was a mandate. Lacking this, I think people shall vote for
the proposal on its merits, and their intentions are not limited to
what the rationale says is proper motivation and intent.
Lacking a clear choice made by voters, no amount of "people
who chose this proposal believe in chaos theory" style assertions in
the rationale carry any weight.
> Which of us is expressing the lower opinion of the electorate,
> again?
I certainly am not. You seem to think that stating something
in a rationale binds peoples motivations; like they were sheep to
change their reasons for voting just because you said so in the
rationale.
manoj
--
"I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats
is infinitely superior."-Hippolyte Taine
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
1024R/C7261095 print CB D9 F4 12 68 07 E4 05 CC 2D 27 12 1D F5 E8 6E
1024D/BF24424C print 4966 F272 D093 B493 410B 924B 21BA DABB BF24 424C
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