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Re: having public irc logs?



(Replies redirected to debian-project, since this has nothing to do
with the DPL election anymore.)

On Fri, Apr 07, 2017 at 07:51:21AM +0000, Gianfranco Costamagna wrote:
> e.g. I think Release Team channel is useful to know if something bad
> is going on, also Ftp channel or Buildd one. e.g. I can spot the
> need of a give back, I can check the log to see if it has been
> already requested, and then go in the channel to request it.

I guestion the usefulness of IRC logs for that kind of thing. The log
shows that, say, a package was discussed three hours ago. Has the
situation changed? It might have, but without anyone mentioning it on
IRC, and therefor in the log. The kinds of things that are discussed
on IRC tend be quickly changing. Logs are not useful for those. In my
opinion and experience.

> I see two scenarios:
> 1) now everybody thinks irc is private and privacy protected, so
> people are encouraged to "say what they think without doing it in an
> appropriate way"
> 2) irc becomes publicly logged, and people starts behaving more
> appropriately.

This does not match my observations of reality. People seem happy to
behave quite badly using their own names in public fora as it is.
Making IRC channels public is unlikely to have much effect on
behaviour.

If it did, nobody would be an ass on Facebook, Google+, or Twitter
unless they've taken care to hide their identity well. Yet people are
posting, using their real names, sexist and racist slurs, even death
threats. Not to mention newspapers and TV.

If there's a problem with how people behave on IRC, that should be
addressed directly.

> You want to protect privacy but you know privacy doesn't exist on
> public places.

I disgree strongly.

If I sit on a park bench with a friend and we discuss something, we
have an expectation of privacy. If you record our conversation and
play it on the radio, you've violated our privacy.

> (it would be nice if some removed developer going away after some
> bad flame war over Debian would publish *all* the logs just for fun)
> How will you protect the privacy then?

You're suggesting that someone publish non-public discussions? Becuase
it would be fun? Seriously?

> People should be responsible for what they say, regardless where
> they say. We are not kids anymore.

I'll be sending a handyman to install a webcam and microphone in your
bathroom and bedroom. I've also engaged a private investigator firm to
follow you and record all discussions you have with friends. The ones
that mention or refer to Debian will be posted to
meetings-archive.debian.net. A team of volunteers will transcribe them
and post them to identi.ca. After all, ýou need to be responsible for
anything you say, at any time, in any place, in any context.

More constructively... if you have a point that specific disucssions
about, say, release management should be made more public, then make a
specific suggestion about that, with justificiations why it's a good
idea. Saying that all Debian IRC channels should be logged publically
is too broad to be acceptable to a large number of people.

-- 
I want to build worthwhile things that might last. --joeyh

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