Re: Let's Stop Getting Torn Apart by Disagreement: Concerns about the Technical Committee
]] Russ Allbery
> There are two primary reasons why we're continuing to discuss this. One
> is that the decision went a direction that a lot of people didn't, and
> don't, like, and they're still unhappy about it. There's really nothing
> that can be done about this; any other decision would have had exactly the
> same consequence, just with a different set of people.
We could fix the culture. We can choose to change our culture into one
where once we decide on something, that's decided at least until new
facts emerge. Instead, we have chosen to have a culture where
everything can be discussed again and again, until not only is the horse
dead, but its skin is tatters and its bones meal too.
Some people in Debian who were unhappy about the decision initially did
choose to stop beating on it and instead unite and move forward. I wish
we, collectively, agreed more that's what we'd do after such a divisive
process.
> The other point I want to make here is that the systemd discussion was
> one of the most exhausting and time-consuming things that I've ever
> been involved in.
Ditto, and even just reading those few last mails triggers something not
entirely unlike PTSD for me.
> This is some of the "being human" part that I was talking about in my
> other message. Making people heard can be incredibly time-consuming
> and can require a ton of emotional energy, and TC members, like all
> project members, are volunteers. Often with very limited quantities
> of time they can spend on Debian.
The TC members at least have signed up for it, having some idea of what
the work entails. Random maintainers who are suddenly thrust into the
spotlight are much less so, and it's their emotional well-being I want
to protect at the same time as making good technical decisions. It's
really, really hard, for many of the reasons listed in this thread.
--
Tollef Fog Heen
UNIX is user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are
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