Let's make Debian DPLess!?

[Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org>]

Hi!

So how about this perhaps-no-so-crazy idea:

We are getting close to the deadline, and very gratefully no one has
nominated themselves for DPL. Happily it also feels there's less interest
year over year for the position, and the process. But I fear some people
will get restless and panic about the possibility of having no candidates
at all, and might do so out of some kind of sacrificial offering for the
project.

The DPL role is overstated and magnified, primarily from the outside,
where people seem to believe it's some kind o messianic figure that
leads the collective Debian souls that would otherwise be lost, by
giving technical and moral direction to the project at large. But
that's very far from reality.

The truth is that even though the constitution grants _some_ powers to
the DPL, they are in general not used, because IMO the project would
not see those actions with good eyes. The reality is that the DPL is
pretty much a bureaucrat and an ambassador of the project trying to
represent its collective views towards the outside world.

I personally think we can easily do w/o a DPL, but I can understand
people might find this perhaps a tad bit too radical. ;) In that case,
perhaps we can just rename the role and tune it a bit in the constitution
so that it stops being misleading towards the outside, and perhaps make
more clear what the role entails towards the inside. Although naming it
for what it is, might also make the position even less appealing than
it is now, and less worthy of inclusion in ones CV and references. :)
If the latter, more appropriate names that come to mind are f.ex.:

  - Debian Project Ambassador
  - Debian Finance Minister

Thanks,
Guillem