Re: ping

[Ian Jackson <ian@davenant.greenend.org.uk>]

Raul Miller writes ("ping"):
> We've been inactive for pretty much this entire year.  I think this is
> a good thing, but I'd like everyone to just give me a heads up:
> 
> [0] Are you still reading this list?
> [1] Do you still want to participate in this
> committee?

Yes.

> [2] Are there issues you think we should be
> dealing with that we're not?

I haven't been following the policy lists for some time, basically
because I think the process is broken and Wichert doesn't support my
views about how it should work.

> I'm also considering putting up a page inviting people to contact us if
> they have development/interface disputes that they can't resolve.

That would be very good I think.

> I suspect that if we did this we'd get a bunch of "faq" type questions,
> and a number of things that could be resolved by references to existing
> policy or documentation.  The issues that we'd need to solve would
> probably require some additional detail that isn't readily available.
> And, of course, there will be the ever-popular questions that should
> have been sent to debian-user (we've seen a variety of those this year,
> though none have ever been approved, and thus none have become a part
> of the official archive).

Possibly.

> Anyways, I think it's our job (as individuals) to keep problems from
> blowing up to the point that they really require the committee's attention
> to resolve -- I think that if things are being done right the committee
> should never have to take any formal action.  And, while this year has
> been quiet, I'd like to ensure that future years are as well.

I don't think that's the job of the committee as individuals, IYSWIM,
but rather of the people on the policy list, developers, users with
problems, etc.

I agree that if things go well people won't need to contact us.
However, I think it's likely that the reason people haven't been
contacting us isn't because things have been going well.  It's more
likely that by the time someone gets to the point where we should be
looking at the issue they're already tired of fighting a battle
against the forces of conservatism IYSWIM.

Manoj Srivastava writes ("Re: ping"):
> 	I do want to participate in this committee. I do think we may
>  need to make the process of calling upon the tech ctte more visible
>  -- and we do need to make this process more accesible to people (and
>     not just developers)

I agree that we should be more visible and that it should be easier to
call on us.

It may be that we'll end up being swamped if we deal with complaints
from users who are not developers, but we should give it a go.  If we
end up dealing with too many lame questions we'll have to look then at
asking users to find a developer who agrees with them to bring the
complaint.

Ian.