Edward, I can understand your frustration at these various places, but it seems that asking for a 3:1 majority is similar to "we don't ever want this to happen, but lets look like we should allow it."
Perhaps if the ratio were to be lower, 2:1, or replaced with "consensus" which appears in other places in the debian documents, I would have more reason to accept this. As it is, getting a 3:1 majority will likely never happen over the entire developer's community (500+ people, remember..) Also, the definition of "Active" is a bit strong to my tastes. By that definition, anyone that goes camping for a weekend is "not active". Anyone that ignores their computer to play with their kids for a day is "not active". Of course, those are just nitpicky details. I think the general idea is good; barring a good explanation of why it is a bad idea, I can't see why a modified version of this (to lower the ratio, and amend the definition of "active" so that people aren't tied to their computers seven days a week..) shouldn't be added to the constitution. IANADD(yet). :) On Sun, Oct 31, 1999 at 03:09:31PM +0000, Edward Brocklesby wrote: > Hi, > > The attached document details a modification written by Zephaniah E. Hull > and I, which I am proposing as an amendment to the Debian Constitution. > This hopefully solves one or two problems we have identified in Debian, > namely closed teams (new-maintainer, ftp maint etc.), stagnation of these > teams, and the current issue of new maintainer being closed. > > Please offer sensible, well considered, useful comments. Replies from > rude, abrasive people (you know who you are) will be ignored. > > Diolch, Edward. Content-Description: Debian constitution changes > [...] > > 3. The Project Leader's Delegate(s) may decide not to admit any new > Developers (close the New Maintainer process), until the next > release of debian, provided Developers are in favour of this > by a 3:1 majority. New Maintainer may be reopened either when the > Developers agree to do so by a 3:1 majority, or the next version > of Debian has been released. New maintainer may be closed for longer > than this time only if a General Resolution is passed. > > [...] > > 8.4 Composition > > 1. Any critical package or system team (e.g, the New Maintainer team, > the FTP Admin team, any Essential package's maintainers) must have > a reasonable number of active members at all times. > 2. If, for any reason, it is not possible for a reasonable number of > members of any team to be active, the Project Leader, one of > the Leader's Delegates, or a member of the team must appoint > enough members to ensure there are at least two active. > 3. All mailing lists for a particular team must be open, unless > the Developers agree that it may be closed, by a vote with a > majority of at least 3:1, or the Project Leader gives permission > for the list to be closed, and no Developers object to this. > 4. An "Active" member shall mean a member who, in any given day, would > be able to take suitable action on any situation relating to that > particular team. > 5. "Reasonable number" shall mean either the amount of people required > to handle all issues relating to that team, or two, whichever is > greater. > 6. An "open" mailing list shall mean a mailing list to which anyone > can subscribe to and read. The list may restrict who is allowed > to post to it (a "moderated" list). The list must be archived > in a publically accessible place, for a period of at least two > years. -- Seth Arnold | http://www.willamette.edu/~sarnold/ Hate spam? See http://maps.vix.com/rbl/ for help Hi! I'm a .signature virus! Copy me into your ~/.signature to help me spread!
