Re: Making the RMS resolution a Secret Ballot
Hallo,
* Didier 'OdyX' Raboud [Sun, Apr 11 2021, 06:00:30PM]:
> For what I'm concerned, I don't "insist on making the personal views on this
> GR public", because it was always clear (to me) that all voters' personal
> views on this GR would end up being made public by the secretary on our
> website; this is how we have all experienced the publication of GR results for
> at least a decade. I insist on "not changing how we collectively run through
> the GR experience in the middle of a sensitive GR". This is not "dragging my
> fellows into denuding themselves", because my expectation is that every voter
> is well aware that their vote would be published, in this GR as in any GR. [1]
I didn't have you (personally) in mind while writing this but some other
voices on this thread. Those which go along the line "I know that my
vote will become public and so it gives me the right to see what
others think as well, and also to everybody else in the world". Sorry,
it doesn't, that is twisted logics. I mean, what is the loss if you
don't see other people's votes? There isn't much unless someone wants to
discriminate people with different opinions. Inside and OUTSIDE of
Debian.
And not sure how you get the impression but I don't really object to
have a visible list of people's opinions on certain subjects, as long as
the purpose of this information is bound to the technical work in the
project itself. The problem with this GR is, the Rubicon was crossed
when a certain group decided to repurpose our infrastructure into a
survey engine for topics which are outside of our turf. If we go this
way, then (in my opinion) the defaults of the system should be adjusted
to be more fair and fail-safe for political/delicate voting.
Actually I was thinking about proposing another option, like "this GR
should not exist until our processes are adjusted" but there was not
enough time to think it through, especially since that certain group
decided to shorten the discussion period. Do the math.
> If you don't want to (or cannot afford to) see your personal views on this
> GR to be made public, then don't vote.
>
> Don't misread me; it is a very very serious concern that external factors
> (threats, pression, etc) make it so that some of our voters will not vote in
> fear of retaliation. But I think that if we, as a project, accept to bend our
> traditional and constitutional procedures under that external pressure through
> emergency exceptional measures, we also make the project more vulnerable to
> future external pressure; we also weaken this GR's results too.
See above, I don't see how adding a little bit of confidentiality would
suddenly expose us to external pressure. But it would improve the GR
quality by eliminating the possibility of retaliation from outsiders.
For those who want a GR to be a messenger for showing their opinion to
the public, we probably should implement a checkbox in the ballot
meaning "My vote should become public".
> We must protect our members from harassment; we must defend the project from
> external influence; and we must call out external pressures in the strongest
> terms possible. Threats against Debian project members because of their public
> opinions in the project are *not acceptable*, ever [1], and we must stand, as
> a project, against those threatening our members and our community. The
> problem we face here is the pressure and the threats against project members,
> not the publication of the GR votes. Let's not forget that.
Well, we can state this the whole day long but you are talking about
factors which are probably outside of our control and which are hard to
prove and punish.
Best regards,
Eduard.
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