Re: I am ANGRY with Debian.
Max Hyre <max@hyre.net> writes:
> Watch out for loaded words. The decision was indeed
> ``political'' in that it was put up to a vote, but
> `politics' has negative connotations that I don't think
> apply here. Each person voting, whether pro or con, was
> voting out of principle, not because they'd been bribed, or
> because they'd been forced to follow the party line. They
> were deciding what the party line was to be.
>
> This is politics at its best, and has no connection to
> the operations of the U.S. legislative or executive
> branches, which is what the word `political' is loaded with.
>
> Indeed, better coordination in the transition (notably
> pointing people toward the excised documents) would have
> been a major improvement. However, ``because of a political
> decision'' sounds like something derogatory. In what sense
> do you mean for people to understand that phrase?
Firstly, I disagree that the word 'political' is loaded with
connections to the US legislative or executive branches; that is a
parochial view. I am from the UK, why would I make those associations?
In this instance, Debian the community of developers and package
maintainers, has made a politicial decision and then taken a mandate
for action from that which overreaches what should have been done.
As far as I can see, only a third of the electorate voted. And Debian
has a very limited electorate; I have been using Debian for 10 years;
I have contributed help and user conversions - but I don't get a vote.
What I'm saying is that care should have been taken with the
decision. It was a sensitive issue and what is being done is not
sensitive.
And I think that is *exactly* like politics elsewhere. I am not
surprised by that. But I am dissapointed and angry.
It is also interesting that a good number of people have seen nothing
wrong with the actions as they have been taken and I get taken to task
for bringing it up. That looks a lot like normal politics to me.
--
Nic Ferrier
http://www.tapsellferrier.co.uk
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