Re: Jumped up developers [Re: stop the "manage with debconf" madness]
On Mon, Apr 21, 2003 at 06:33:49PM +0100, Matt Ryan wrote:
> And the bit that the "jumped up developers" don't seem to understand is the
> co-operation and consensus. I constantly see comments on how we should
> restrict the number of maintainers, how we need to make sure everyone's
> packages measures up to some indication of worth and importance and how if
> you have not got stuck in with some technical solution in the dim and
> distant past then your opinion isn't worth jack. My vision of inclusiveness
> means that everyone gets a say whether its liked it or not.
People can say whatever they want. They can say that 2+2=5. That
doesn't make it be technically correct.
> There are no ranks in Debian, no one gets paid (AFAIK) and so no view is
> more or less valid than another.
Absolutely not. For issues involving questions of fact, some views
are correct, and views are incorrect. For other issues, we *must* all
agree to do things a certain way, or the project loses all coherence.
That's what policy is all about. If your view goes against what
Policy dictates, you can argue that Policy should be changed, but to
say that "your view is just as important as any other" is not a valid
argument which justifies violating Policy.
And ultimately, your assertion is fundamentally incorrect because we
can ultimately appeal a question to the technical committee, and once
they have ruled, then one particular view *is* valid, and another
particular *is* invalid.
> I think a small minority of developers can
> easily get identified as pushing their own agendas if we did an informal
> poll on this list. Those are the one's I have issue with and will continue
> to say so. Most likely a strong feeling to respond to this message will
> promote you to the top of the list 8-)
Ad hominmem. If you think they are pushing their own agenda, then
identify it. What I've seen so far on this thread is an honest desire
to improve the quality of the Debian distribution. Consistency
between packages and avoidance of using debconf to either (a) display
silly and inane messages about binutils, or (b) as a way to blow away
user managed configuration files are both things which we should
strive for towards improving the quality of the overall Debian
distribution. As such, those are agendas for the public good, and not
what I would call private agendas.
- Ted
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