Dear Developers,
Following the last update of the Policy Editors delegation[1], some
questions were raised about it[2], and specifically about the content of
its "Task description" (which was not modified in that specific update
of the delegation).
As discussed in the official statement from the Debian Project
Secretary[3], the main problem was that the delegation should delegate
"ongoing responsibility or a specific decision", but not prescribe
a particular process or method that the delegates should adhere to.
During the initial drafting of that delegation's Task Description, the
DPL and the to-be-delegates used that opportunity to document the
process used by the Policy Editors. However, by specifying a process
("collaborative process", "count seconds and weight objections", "Commit
changes to the version control system repository"), the resulting
delegation became too prescriptive, as "Delegates may make decisions as
they see fit, but should attempt to implement good technical decisions
and/or follow consensus opinion." (Constitution 8.3)
This update of the Policy Editors delegation (below, between dashed
lines) addresses this by removing the description of the process used to
maintain the Debian Policy Manual.
The documentation of the process used by Policy Editors can currently
and usually be found on https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Policy .
[1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2013/12/msg00004.html
[2] https://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2014/01/msg00004.html
[3] https://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2014/01/msg00054.html
Lucas
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Policy Editors delegation
=========================
I hereby appoint the following developers as Policy Editors:
- Andreas Barth (aba)
- Bill Allombert (ballombe)
- Jonathan Nieder (jrnieder)
- Russ Allbery (rra)
Any previous Debian Policy delegation, not explicitly listed above, is
revoked. The delegation is not time-limited. It will be effective until
further changes by present or future DPLs.
Task Description
----------------
The Debian Policy team defines Debian's technical framework, including
the structure and contents of the Debian archive, design issues of the
operating system, as well as technical requirements that all packages
must satisfy.
The Debian Policy team also maintains the Debian Policy Manual and all
the other policy documents released as part of the "debian-policy"
package.
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