On Tue, 06 Jun 2006, David Nusinow wrote: > On Mon, Jun 05, 2006 at 08:04:56PM -0400, Jeremy Hankins wrote: > > I'm afraid I don't understand the fear here. What would it mean for d-l > > to become gnome.alioth.debian.org in your example? > > Non-developers, no matter how much they love Free Software and > Debian, don't get to decide on the policies for the Debian project. > They have a say, but they don't get to make a decision, or make any > claims on behalf of the project. This applies to debian-legal > contributors as well. Indeed, this applies to everyone. Only the DPL (and delegates acting in a specific area of delegated responsibility) have the authority to speak "ex cathedra" for the project, and even they should be very cautious when doing as they are still subject to being overruled via a GR. Everyone should make ubundantly clear when they are interfacing with individuals outside of Debian mailing lists that their opinions are not necessarily the opinions of the Debian project; that they are merely representing their own concerns. This isn't something that we can effectively enforce, but not doing so can harm both the reputation of the Debian project, and the people who are misrepresenting it; if you care about our community, it behooves you to do this. As far as talking on list, I really don't think it matters whether or not you are a developer;[1] the critical thing is what you have to say and to a lesser extent the way in which you say it.[2] Don Armstrong 1: Anyone who actually reads these lists should be capable of checking db.debian.org or qa.debian.org if this sort of thing actually matters to them. 2: I'd like to think -legal contributors should always be thinking about their messages in terms of the desired end state: software in main under non-controversially DFSG free licenses. Contribute with that end goal in mind. [I suppose the same could be said for -devel contributor's desired end state: a technically excellent distribution.] -- "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot http://www.donarmstrong.com http://rzlab.ucr.edu
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