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RFC: Inclusion of "An Anarchist FAQ"



I suppose I may as well comment before this turns into an all-out
flamefest... :)

Those people who have objected to the inclusion of the Anarchist FAQ in
debian have raised some good points; at what point does a document merit
inclusion in debian? Are there strict criteria? Should it be of
specifically OS-related content, or do documents of political opinion fit
into the scheme? Originally, I thought that the anarchist FAQ, as a GPL'd
and very popular document, would be valuable in the distro. In fact, I'd
received requests from some people about deb-packaged versions of the FAQ.

I'm fully willing to remove this package from Debian if people feel
strongly enough about it. While the content may be of interest to many
geeks out there, it's probably true that it's not important enough to be
included with the OS proper.

One thing that I think would be very useful, however, would be some sort
of "Free Literature/Documentation Add-On CD" for debian -- somewhere where
we could package up the oodles of free texts out there without bloating
the distro further. If things like the Gutenberg texts are free enough,
I'm sure we'd have no problem finding 650 megs of texts.

In closing, though, I'd like to make a couple points about the FAQ. It is
a very extensive economic, social and political analysis of Anarchism
(libertarian socialism) which is written in a very academic and
professional manner. Also, Anarchism (contrary to the opinion of many a
packet kiddie) is not a theory of destruction, disorder, and such.
Anarchism is a theory for the positive reconstruction of society along
voluntarist and communitarian lines (think: debian as a society). Neither
Anarchism nor this FAQ have anything to do with violent or anti-social
acts. Also, the FAQ is a GPL'd document -- something i personally find
encouraging.

Anyway, how feasible to other people feel a "Free Texts Add-On" would be?
I for one would be willing to work to make this become reality, if others
think it's a good idea.

For now, I'm downgrading its priority to Extra. I'd encourage anyone who
wants to continue this thread to email me personally. Debian-devel is
stressed enough without another flamewar to deal with. Thanks.

for free software,
ed.



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