Re: What do you expect from the DPL?
On Sat, Feb 14, 2015 at 02:41:18PM +0100, Stefano Zacchiroli wrote:
> On Sat, Feb 14, 2015 at 10:07:08AM +0100, Lucas Nussbaum wrote:
> > My own view on the original question ("What are you expected the DPL to
> > do?") is that the main thing the DPL must absolutely do is being a good
> > "garbage collector" (I think the original naming comes from Zack).
> Possibly. I think I actually used "decision garbage collector", but the
> notion is exactly the one you explained.
I wonder if that couldn't be framed a bit more positively. I reread
HPMOR recently, and I wonder if the notion of "heroic responsibility"
mightn't be applicable:
"You could call it heroic responsibility, maybe," Harry Potter
said. "Not like the usual sort. It means that whatever happens,
no matter what, it's always your fault. Even if you tell Professor
McGonagall, she's not responsible for what happens, you are. Following
the school rules isn't an excuse, someone else being in charge isn't
an excuse, even trying your best isn't an excuse. There just aren't
any excuses, you've got to get the job done no matter what."
-- http://hpmor.com/chapter/75
> FWIW, that aspect of the DPL "job" seems to be frequently overlooked in
> DPL candidate platforms, which often tend to focus on ambitious Debian
> reform plans.
To my mind, that's because there's a lack of obvious alternatives on how
to do ambitious Debian reform plans -- or in particular establishing the
moral and practical support for them. So in the same sense that "the DPL"
is the final answer for trying to resolve disputes when everything else
you can think of fails, it's also the answer for trying to make big
changes when you run out of other idas.
> They are all fine and well of course, but DPL time will in
> the end have to be split among implementing those plans and tending to
> often unpredictable day by day duties, with the latter often dominating
> the DPL agenda (IME).
I haven't seen any followup from the tech ctte on some of the disucssion from
Dec about improving the way the ctte approaches requests, cf
https://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2014/12/msg00050.html
https://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2014/12/msg00069.html
https://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2014/12/msg00075.html
Improvements there might help with the DPL's workload, in so far as that
involves dealing with arguments over technical things.
Cheers,
aj
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