Re: [all candidates] Removing or limiting DD rights?
On 25/03/13 at 16:22 +0000, Steve McIntyre wrote:
> Hi guys,
>
> First of all, thanks to all three of you standing in the DPL election
> this year. I know it's a daunting task! :-)
>
> I've already seen some debate about how we could/should attract more
> contributors, which is a perennial question in Debian. I personally
> don't think we're ever likely to "solve" that issue permanently, but
> it's clearly something that's always going to be very important for
> us. I have a related question, but more on the opposite end of the
> spectrum I suppose:
>
> Are we strict enough with our existing contributors? When we're trying
> to work together as best we can to make the Universal Operating System
> happen, what could/should we do with contributors who hinder our work?
> Sometimes that hindrance is inadvertent, sometimes it seems
> deliberate. At other times it looks like we have developers who are
> just not paying attention to what they're doing or who just don't care
> about the goals of the project. Occasionally we see direct action to
> censure or even expel DDs, but these are only ever in the most blatant
> of cases. By the time that happens, large amounts of damage may be
> done to the project: delayed releases, lost users, loss of motivation
> for other contributors.
>
> I'm wondering: is this something that you think is a real problem, and
> if so what do you think we could do about it?
I think that there's an unavoidable amount of such problems in a
large-scale volunteer-based project such as Debian. Solving those
problems is very hard, and I don't think that our current ways of
dealing with them can be improved much.
One small thing that we could improve on is earlier official
communication. For example, in case of seriously problematic behaviour
that could eventually lead to censure or expulsion, official warnings
could be issued to the DD, and Cced to -private@. In some cases, that
could help the DD realize that s/he needs a behaviour change, and also
limit the surprise effect if/when a final decision is taken.
Lucas
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