Re: Voting on messages: a way to resolve the mailing list problems

[George Danchev <danchev@spnet.net>]

On Monday 22 December 2008 07:47:41 Manoj Srivastava wrote:
> Hi,

Hi,

>         So, are there going to be guide;lines for this voting on emails?

I'm afraid that I'm not able answer such a question, but I can try to provide 
a contra-argument (just to prove it wrong or maybe right) -- if we follow a 
strict and well written guide lines when voting then it is most likely that 
our votes would end up being the same, then why bother to vote at all if we 
already know the results ? ;-) or am I missing something here ?

>  On /.,  when one moderates, there are clear labels: troll, off-topic,
>  flamebait, etc. When we put in voting, would there be some guidelines
>  for what is or is not acceptable criteria for disapproving a message?
>
>         Can people disapprove if a message is
>  - they disagree with the message?
>  - the author is french?
>  - The author's sexual orientation displeases them?
>  - the author is male?

Well, I assume that the vote is a personal human right and that is common for 
all the cultures out there (including regimes, since these peers are Debian 
citizens after all, if any ?). So anyone can vote on his/her own. I believe 
that is quite valid assumption, isn't it ?

>         If there are such guidelines, will there be consequences to
>  wilful and prolonged  abuse of moderation guidelines? Is there going to
>  be meta moderation?
>
>         I would have considered that these would fall under "common
>  sense" or "people are not insane" clauses, but I have recently heard
>  people on IRC professing that since they were not asked to accept the
>  constitution, just hte SC and the DFSG, they do not feel bound by
>  constitutional mandates, and thus can do whatever they want in their
>  activities in Debian.  I am scared that we might have arrived at the
>  point that unless there are strong guidelines and policies laid out
>  about voting, this mechanism is likely to be abused as well.

Hm, that is tricky, and I'm not sure how to comment on that.

-- 
pub 4096R/0E4BD0AB 2003-03-18 <people.fccf.net/danchev/key pgp.mit.edu>