Dear Branden, thank you for setting out your position so clearly.
I want to be equally clear in response. The Debian Community Team acts under my delegation and enjoys my full confidence. Its role is to protect the ability of the project to work productively, inclusively, and at scale. When the Community Team intervenes, it does so based on the effect of behaviour on the wider community, not on personal disagreement or rhetorical style preferences. Unproductive behaviour on Debian mailing lists - including excessively long, complex, and unfocused messages that consume disproportionate attention and discourage participation - is not acceptable. This is not an abstract concern: Debian is a global project, with many non-native English speakers and contributors who have limited time. Communication that systematically excludes or exhausts others directly harms our ability to serve our users. With respect to your request for an independent appellate process: Debian's Constitution and current governance structures do not define such a mechanism for reviewing Community Team actions of this kind. What you are proposing reflects a personal interest in procedural review, not an established project process. Creating ad-hoc bodies or new review structures in response to individual cases would itself consume significant time and attention - time that is already scarce and that the project owes first and foremost to its users. Due process in Debian does not mean that every enforcement action requires the creation of a new institution. Delegation exists precisely so that the project can function without continual escalation and paralysis. The Community Team has acted within its mandate, and I support its actions. My expectation is that all Debian Developers communicate in ways that are constructive, proportionate, and mindful of the shared resource that is our collective attention. Continued failure to do so will have consequences, as already communicated to you. Kind regards, Andreas. Am Mon, Feb 09, 2026 at 05:24:31PM -0600 schrieb G. Branden Robinson: > Dear Andreas, > > I wish to officially report a grievance against the Community Team for > its handling of my messages to Debian Project mailing lists over the > past year, and I request a review of its actions with regard to me by an > _independent_ reviewer or panel thereof, with an opportunity to present > a defense and/or nominate an advocate to present one for me. I feel > that the Community Team has acted toward me with hostility and a lack of > collegiality unbecoming to delegates of the Debian Project Leader. > > I have modified the following only to obscure the title of a thread to > debian-private. The quotation Andrew offers appears to be an > approximately correct (if incomplete) representation of my words, and I > waive my privacy in the portions I authored of the debian-private > message to which he refers. (That is, I cannot and do not waive privacy > prvilege in portions of the message that I didn't write, such as > quotations of other people who mailed -private.) > > Please advise how you will handle this request. I feel that all Debian > Developers are entitled to due process and should receive it. > > Regards, > Branden -- https://fam-tille.de
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