Re: Debian is testing Discourse
On Wednesday, April 15, 2020 12:11:24 AM Andy Smith wrote:
> Hello,
>
> On Tue, Apr 14, 2020 at 08:14:22AM -0400, rhkramer@gmail.com wrote:
> > I had to look up Neil McGovern to find out what "status" he has in the
> > Debian organization. IIUC, he was the DPL (I guess I learned an
> > acronym) in something like 2015, and he may now be the executive
> > director of GNOME.
> >
> > Does he have some current status in Debian that would make his thoughts
> > any more of indicative of the intentions of Debian than anyone else?
>
> There are some very strange assumptions being made in the above text
> about the decision-making processes of Debian.
Interesting.
Communication is often (always?) difficult.
I often (sometimes?) try to look back what I wrote and try to see what I did
wrong or could have done better.
Sometimes the problem may be on the other side, the mindset of the reader (or
maybe I didn't quote enough).
Sometimes I feel the need to respond (publicly or privately) for the sake of
my own self respect -- maybe that is the primary reason for this response.
I don't see many (any?) assumptions in what I wrote, I see questions.
I guess I was somewhat using a form of indirect response (though not in the
coding indirection sense) -- the intent of my response is almost exactly what
you stated in your last paragraph -- I was trying to say (or at least imply)
that I didn't see any reason that just because some "ordinary" writer to this
list proposes something doesn't make it an intention of the debian project.
(If the writer was the current DPL or some other person with delegated
authority for the project, it might be different, but I hope that, in that
case, the writer would distinguish between things that were being "proposed"
for discussion as opposed to (for example) plans for implementation.)
> I have no idea why
> you would just imagine that huge sections of project infrastructure
> could be torn down and replaced based on the wishes of one person,
> even if you started off with having no idea about how it's actually
> done. Clearly in a project the size of Debian that sort of behaviour
> just wouldn't scale.
>
> Briefly and broadly:
>
> Debian makes decisions based on rough consensus, with some areas of
> responsibility delegated to teams. When a decision has to be made
> and consensus can't be found, sometimes things are referred to the
> Technical Committee, or sometimes they are put to a General
> Resolution (a vote).
I understand (and understood) all that -- I guess I'm disappointed that my
response apparently indicated otherwise, although maybe that had to do with
phrasing -- but I guess I think it had more to do with your mindset.
> If you're interested in watching Debian make decisions then I think
> it would be best to subscribe to the debian-project mailing list. It
> sometimes is not very pretty - maybe the saying about watching
> sausages being made applies here.
I am subscribed, although maybe for not all that long -- I subscribed when I
first saw this subject come up on debian-user.
> It does not matter if someone is a highly esteemed Debian developer
> and DPL emeritus; if they try to push through a change that is
> controversial and ignore dissent then someone will call a GR and
> then the proponent has 1 vote just like every other eligible Debian
> voter.
Exactly.
Have a good day.
regards,
Randy Kramer
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