Re: Third call for votes for the debian project leader election 2006
On 3 Apr 2006, MJ Ray stated:
> Clytie Siddall <clytie@riverland.net.au>
>> I don't understand why this election is restricted to Debian
>> Developers. What about all the other people who regularly
>> contribute time and effort to the Debian project?
>
> This is a known bug, I think, but I don't remember any of this
> year's candidates pledging to solve it. There seems few votes
> in fixing this bug, as most possible solutions dilute the
> influence of the current electorate. I suspect only anarchists
> and democrats like myself would support it.
Far from it being a known bug, I don't think it is a bug at
all. There has to be some criteria for allowing people decision
making powers in the project (conducting the vote on slashdot would
be unacceptable to most people).
The way I see it, Debian produces an modular OS. the
modularity of the product is, by and large[0], packages. people at
whose desks the buck stops are the maintainers of the packages --
and, colletively, that means they are responsible for the OS. ergo,
the right to vote comes with the responsibility of being the go-to
guy when problems show up with the package.
In other words, those who are responsible, decide.
I acknowledge that any number of people are responsible for
getting the software in shape for it to be shipped in Dewbian
(with the upstream author usually doing most of the creative
heavy lifting), but one person signs off on the package, which gets
it into the gate and into the archive -- and that signature carries
with it responsibility for the code introduced into the
archive. This, nominally, is what begets the right to decide on
critical issues facing the project.
Becoming a DD also entails a level of commitment tot he
project that a casual contributor has not made. When it comes to
making decisions that may affect me, my packages, and the users of my
packages, I think it is only fitting the decisions are made by
people who have demonstrated a level of commitment to the project, as
well as the principles it stands for (affirmation of the SC and the
DFSG, for instance).
manoj
[0]. There are people who contribute to Debian other than as
package maintainers, but they do have the same rights of
uploading as anyone else.
--
A right is not what someone gives you; it's what no one can take from
you. Ramsey Clark
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
1024D/BF24424C print 4966 F272 D093 B493 410B 924B 21BA DABB BF24 424C
Reply to: