Re: Draft proposal for resolution process changes
Hi,
On Tue, Sep 28, 2021 at 6:24 AM Adrian Bunk <bunk@debian.org> wrote:
>
> whenever there is no clear majority in the TC ...
> the TC should ... propose a GR instead
For a committee that effectively appoints its own members, it is
probably unwise to ask the Chair to resolve split votes except in the
most trivial of cases. A general vote, on the other hand, would supply
the broad democratic legitimacy needed to silence critics forever.
When facing that monumental and often disproportionate alternative,
some TC members may reconsider their votes. At least I would.
More generally, foundational documents do not captivate the minds of
the governed when laden with procedural details. Our constitution
already shuns a common purpose with "It does not describe the goals of
the Project" (which for some reason comes right after the more
positive "The Debian Project is an association of individuals who have
made common cause to create a free operating system."). In the current
thread, I miss simple language as to whether the purpose of decisions
is legitimacy or speed.
Personally, the latter seems inconsistent with Debian's releases,
which occur when the time is right. [1]
If a brief excursion is permitted in our community of programmers, I
have over the past three years dropped thousands of hilarious
conditionals [2] from Lintian—another expression of our common
rules—because they too often obscured the code's purpose. My
recommendation would be to reduce the complexity of the Constitution,
as well:
I would rely on a simple popular vote when needed (GR, and perhaps
elections) but otherwise leave the TC to its own devices—including the
ability to overrule a maintainer with an absolute majority (not 3:1).
The TC has over the years proven itself to be a trusted and
transparent institution with good decision-making capabilities. We act
better in groups and more wisely than as individuals, with or without
rules.
Thanks for reading!
Kind regards
Felix Lechner
[1] https://wiki.debian.org/ReleasePolicy
[2] https://salsa.debian.org/lintian/lintian/-/commit/c36f898110dd83f57eeccf715e4908a3c0931752
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