On Thu, Mar 06, 2008 at 04:16:15PM +0000, MJ Ray wrote: > there are claims like the limit is a convention and "a convention *is* > proper for this kind of thing. The fact that it is not totally > respected is, IMO, not a problem, since it usually is." > -- Wouter Verhelst > http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2007/08/msg00123.html > > That's no longer true, even if it used to be. Campaigning usually > happens before and after the campaign time. I think we should either:- > - take advantage of what really happens and shorten the election, or > - establish the convention on campaign time limits. I'd go for the second option, but I don't think we need any change for that (and thus no proposal and no seconds). A convention by definition is already changed when we no longer follow it. > > That is, IMO we should solve hypothetical social problems by saying > > "we'll solve them reasonably when they are a real issue." [...] > > This isn't hypothetical. Campaigning has started early for four of > the last five elections IIRC. But it's not a problem, AFAICS. > > > The benefit would be less time spent on the election, so available for > > > other work. > > > > I think this is not a real issue. Do you feel we lose volunteer time > > because people are campaining during the year? > > Well, for example, Marc Brockschmidt has spent time writing a > platform, canvassing and campaigning, which he suggested he would not > have done if an acceptable candidate had already nominated. If an > acceptable candidate is nominated now, we've lost that time. We could > try to save that sort of time by rewarding early nominations with more > campaigning opportunities, by officially killing the convention > against campaigning during nominations. If you think it helps, I have no problem with declaring that candidates may now campain during the elections. I just don't think it really changes anything. And I think it's a waste of time to do a vote on something like that. How about this: anyone who wants to continue informally forbidding campaining during the nomination period please reply to this post and explain why. With no replies, let's consider the convention "officially killed". :-) Thanks, Bas -- I encourage people to send encrypted e-mail (see http://www.gnupg.org). If you have problems reading my e-mail, use a better reader. Please send the central message of e-mails as plain text in the message body, not as HTML and definitely not as MS Word. Please do not use the MS Word format for attachments either. For more information, see http://pcbcn10.phys.rug.nl/e-mail.html
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