Hi Brandon, Brandon Invergo <bran...@gnu.org> skribis:
> Mark Wielaard writes: > >>> There is no such thing as a FSF steward, GNU maintainers are appointed >>> by RMS/GAC. The FSF has no say in the topic. You've keept >>> misrepresenting this over and over again. >> >> This is just a legal technicallity. The FSF has oversight >> responsibility over the GNU project. That means that the FSF needs to >> determine that GNU maintainers operate in a manner consistent with >> FSF's exempt purposes, have the needed expertise and that their >> activities can be monitored by the FSF board. So GNU Maintainers and >> Steering committees are technically appointed by the FSF (previously >> RMS when he was FSF president and board member) as stewards of GNU >> packages. Basically GNU maintainers serve at the pleasure of the FSF. > > This is absolutely false. > > As a member of the package evaluation team and as an Assistant > GNUissance (maintain...@gnu.org), I have personally been involved in > many appointments of new maintainers at every step of the process, from > first contact with GNU through to post-appointment bureaucracy and > occasional check-ins. I also have the authority to appoint new > maintainers of existing packages myself (only Richard can appoint > maintainers of new packages). In fact, I personally appointed some new > co-maintainers of Guix back in September, two weeks *after* Richard > resigned as president of the FSF, which Ludovic can confirm. Yes, I confirm this. > I can categorically say that the FSF is not involved whatsoever in the > appointment of new maintainers. That’s also my understanding. > Please do not spread misinformation about the GNU project. Please assume good faith. The lesson here is that if long-time contributors or maintainers do not know for sure how this all works, perhaps we should see whether/how we can better document it. As a side note: I think authority is not something one should take for granted. We’re a group of volunteers, and each one of us has just as much authority as the others consent to give them. Thanks, Ludo’.
