Re: Possible fourth ballot option
Wouter Verhelst <wouter@debian.org> writes:
> On Mon, Nov 29, 2021 at 08:55:19PM +0100, Lucas Nussbaum wrote:
>> Instead of the quite complex procedure proposed by Wouter, couldn't we
>> patch the DPL's power to increase or decrease the the discussion period
>> to allow the DPL to extend it beyond three weeks?
> The downside of doing that is that if the DPL does this, then it is a
> fairly political action, with all downsides of that method: if there is
> a group of developers who would like the time to be extended and a group
> who doesn't, then the DPL will be caught between a rock and a hard
> place, and will be yelled at by one group or the other, regardless of
> which decision they take.
Yes, this exactly. When drafting my original proposal, I thought about
this possibility, but I think it puts the DPL in an incredibly difficult
position where they will be accused of political bias no matter what they
do.
I have mostly convinced myself that there are only two good options for
handling the discussion period length that won't cause other problems or
put people into difficult positions: setting a pretty tight minimum and
maximum, with a bit of flexibility given to the DPL and to give people a
chance to absorb new proposals but not enough to be abused or to provoke
more than a bit of minor grumbling; or having a vote of some type on when
to end the discussion period.
On the current ballot, both of those are represented. My option sets a
pretty tight range of options for the discussion length (one to four
weeks), and Wouter's system has a rather elegant, if a bit complex, voting
system. That seems like a good set of options to choose between.
>> I think that it is reasonable to assume that the DPL will make such
>> decisions based on what is best for the project. If the DPL abuses
>> this, there's still the possibility to override the decision.
> But then you now have two votes, which feels superfluous.
Also, the process for the DPL vote override is kind of a mess. I didn't
try to fix that because this proposal is already doing enough, but then
you have a vote that lasts (presumably) two weeks, about whether to extend
the discussion period of another vote, and edge cases abound. For
example, it's entirely possible that the vote on whether to override the
DPL decision to not extend the voting period could finish well after the
voting period for the original GR had started.
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
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