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Re: DPL Debates [Re: Debian Project Leader Election 2009]



On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 09:50:24PM -0800, Steve Langasek wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 02:10:38AM -0800, Don Armstrong wrote:
> > On Sat, 21 Feb 2009, Debian Project Secretary wrote:
> > > | Period     | Start                    | End                        |
> > > |------------+--------------------------+----------------------------|
> > > | Nomination | Sunday, March  1st, 2009 | Saterday, March  7th, 2009 |
> > > | Campaign   | Sunday, March  8th, 2009 | Saterday, March 28th, 2009 |
> > > | Vote       | Sunday, March 29th, 2009 | Saterday, April 11th, 2009 |
> 
> > > I suggest that potential DPL candidates start getting their platform
> > > ready. I would like to receive them before the campaign period
> > > start.
> 
> > As I've apparently volunteered to moderate the debate again,[0] it
> > falls to me to remind prospective candidates to calculate their
> > schedule for the week of the 21st->28th, and soon after they self
> > nominate forward the times during that week which they can absolutely
> > not debate as well as times that they'd rather not debate to me. [This
> > will help me to avoid having to schedule the debate smack in the
> > middle of some erstwhile candidate's coffin time.[0.577]]
> 
> > Those who have suggestions for alterations to the format can also make
> > those known in a reply to this message (refer to last year's debate
> > format[1] if you've forgotten what we did last year, suffer from
> > amnesia or are incapable of forming long term memories or faking them
> > by the creative use of google and blogs).
> 
> > People who'd like to help run the debate and/or collect questions can
> > also volunteer with a message to -vote.
> 
> I'd like to raise the question of whether these IRC debates are really
> something we should have.  I know Don and the panelists put a lot of time
> and effort into making the debates happen, which is part of why I ask the
> question:  is it really worth all this effort?  What do we get out of a
> three-hour real-time IRC debate that we don't already get from the
> candidates' platforms and three weeks of discussion on debian-vote?
> 
> All I see that we get is a measure of how comfortable the candidate is with
> (English-language) IRC as a medium, which is just not that interesting to me
> as a factor in deciding who I'm going to vote for as DPL.  Is it to other
> people, or are others getting something else out of this that I'm
> overlooking?
> 
> For the last two election cycles, I've ignored the IRC debate completely,
> and I don't feel that I missed anything.  Am I mistaken?

People gather their impressions and opinions about the candidates from a
variety of settings, contexts, dialogs, meetings, etc. There are various
inputs that folks use:  does the person share my views on (the DFSG, the
GPL, etc.), are they likeable, do they solve group conflicts well, are
they from my country, have I worked with them on a project, did I meet
them at a conference, and a lot of other things. Maybe folks decide who
they would like before the voting starts which would avoid the need for
anything like an IRC chat or a ML discussion. Would it useful to get a
sense of how DD's determine who they vote for? A simple multiple choice
questionaire with a few open ended options? 
or maybe ask if the IRC chat affect their choice in any election?
-K

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