Re: Social Committee proposal
On Fri, 26 Jan 2007 02:25:40 +0100, Josip Rodin <joy@debian.org> said:
> On Thu, Jan 25, 2007 at 07:06:33PM -0600, Manoj Srivastava wrote:
>> > I should also note that we have this sort of an effect already -
>> > if someone wishes to impose their ideas on others, for example to
>> > modify a certain package in a way that they think is right, they
>> > can usually achieve it by working hard enough and being patient
>> > enough to take over the package.
>>
>> > Yet, we also have a tyranny of the minority effect, when e.g. a
>> > person with an uncommon opinion maintains a package in a way that
>> > contradicts with the wishes of others.
>>
>> In both these cases, those that do the work make the decisions.
>> People who do not like it, and are willing to do the work, can fork
>> and offer alternatives.
>>
>> We don't generally let the majority decude how the working minority
>> does its work.
> Er, that's not a technically sound argument. Just because someone is
> more diligent in making uploads and more vocal in trying to explain
> why they should maintain a package, that doesn't in any way imply
> that what they are doing is better than what a person less intent on
> racing uploads and mailing list posts would be doing.
I was not defending the practice; I was pointing out that the
proposed soc ctte thing is different from what we do with packages.
There are vast amounts of leeway a package maintainer exercises over
their package, but they do not have the power to block a fork.
So, if your hypothetical more effective maintainer can't
convince the incumbent about how to do things better, can't file bugs
about th deficiencies and provide patches (and perhaps NMU's for the
more egregious flaws), they can offer alternatives, either on p.d.o,
or as a forked package, or, finally, as a last resort, go to the tech
ctte; but only with legitimate non-subjective technical grievances.
While this might not provide the best maintainer-package
mapping, nor the most efficient one -- it is a model that has worked
for us.
I do pay far more attention to packages that are mine; there
is a sense of ownership, and hos the packages are maintained reflects
on me. I, personally, take greater care of my packages than I would
of anything I am merely part of a team; I would not push off sleep or
work tasks in order to maintain the latter (let the rest of the team
deal with it in my crunch time); but since it is my responsibility, I
go the extra mile.
I am rambling.
OK, so we do carve out little fiefdoms on the packaging side;
but I think it does have a benefit of added incentive. That is the
rationale.
manoj
--
He that would govern others, first should be the master of himself.
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/~srivasta/>
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