Re: Code of Conduct: picking up

[Wouter Verhelst <wouter@debian.org>]

Op 27-11-13 03:07, Russ Allbery schreef:
> Wouter Verhelst <wouter@debian.org> writes:
> 
>> I also don't think it's necessarily a bad thing if someone in Debian
>> acquires a lot of power. We are very much a meritocracy; this means you
>> can't acquire power without a lot of hard work. Once you've done the
>> hard work, you get to decide how you do it, which could indeed be
>> described as "having power"; but since it's you who needs to do the
>> things that your "power position" allow you to make decision about,
>> anyway, this usually isn't a big problem (even though I'll grant you
>> that there are exceptions).
> 
> Debian is not a meritocracy.  Real meritocracies are vanishingly rare, and
> certainly no technical organization that is as lacking in diversity as
> Debian is should claim to be a meritocracy.  Simple demographics show that
> it's not.
[...explanation snipped...]

Fair enough. I'll admit that I'm not very much into the political
sciences, and that my claim of meritocracy was simply copied from what
others had said.

Still, there is something of it. You're right in that people with good
social and writing skills have more of a chance of reaching a position
of power within Debian. However, first, social and writing skills won't
get you all the way. You need to also actually _do_ things. For
instance, you don't become ftp-master by just words; you need to put in
a long time of hard work as ftp assistant first. Similarly, you don't
become release manager by just words; you need to put in a long time of
hard work as release assistant first. I'm sure there are more examples.

Second, and more to the point that I was trying to make, if indeed you
need social and writing skills to be able to reach positions of power in
Debian, then it's reasonable to assume people with the kind of behaviour
this code of conduct wants to encourage would be more likely to reach
such a position of power (if not, then either something is wrong with
our community, or we would need to put more work in improving the text).

Thanks,

-- 
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If it starts pointing toward space you are having a bad problem and you
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