Re: debian-private declassification team (looking for one)

[Andreas Tille <andreas@an3as.eu>]

On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 12:57:06PM +0200, Stefano Zacchiroli wrote:
> But this
> is not the point here: the point is rather that we had a vote on the
> matter, we decided as a project that such archives shall be
> declassified. Now it's time to keep up with what we promised.

I clearly remember that vote.  But how much sense does this vote make if
nobody does the actual work?  Voting about a decision is cheap, but
doing the work is not.  Normally you vote between comparable options.
We voted between "no work at all, just proceed as before" and "doing an
in principle reasonable thing which cases a lot of work (not to mention
triggering fatal failures)".  If you ask me the voting was based only on
"in principle reasonable" but not on "I want to do this work".
 
> Apparently ATM we don't have the energy to do that. That is just fine:
> we are all volunteers and we cannot be forced to do specific stuff.
> Still, we need to show our honesty, clarify our willingness to implement
> our decision, and make clear the needed conditions for that GR to be
> implemented. I believe that the wiki page and the pointer to it from the
> vote page are enough of a message in that respect.

To throw in some fire into the discussion: If somebody want's us to do
this work, he should probably pay for this.  IMHO this kind of work
needs some more motivation than just that some people decided.  If
nobody is willing to pay for the work which has to be done (not the
content which is free for sure) there is obviosely not enough interest
in getting the work done.  (And I personally would vote against spending
Debian's own money for this.)
 
> If anything, this episode might also help us realize that before voting
> on a matter (or proposing to vote on a matter) we should think twice at
> the possibility of keeping up with what the vote entails.
> .oO( "vote is cheap, show me the volunteers" ?)

Yep.  IMHO the vote is just void and was done in an emotional heat.

Kind regards

        Andreas.

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