Dima, presumably you're not talking about me, although I proposed that "we 
start a vote around October 1".

Anyway, the point of having a policy is so that we don't have to concern 
ourselves with the motives of the people requesting the delay or anything 
else: we would just handle the request as our policy dictates.

On Thursday, October 6, 2022 at 12:42:17 PM UTC-7 [email protected] wrote:

>
>
> On Thu, 6 Oct 2022, 20:21 Jonathan Thornburg, <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Oct 6, 2022 at 8:45 AM John H Palmieri <[email protected]> 
>> wrote:
>> > There is nothing in our department's bylaws to provide for a delay of
>> > voting, but we have a chair and we have an executive committee, and the
>> > hope is that they care not only about the particular issue at hand, but
>> > also about the atmosphere in the department. So if someone asked for a
>> > delay, probably the executive committee would consider it and make a
>> > decision. That would not likely result in a vote on whether to delay, 
>> but
>> > just a decision to delay the vote, and probably to schedule some 
>> meetings
>> > for discussion.
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 06, 2022 at 09:25:26AM -0700, William Stein wrote:
>> > Thanks!  So it's basically this model that you already described:
>> > "Alternatively, we have a steering committee that steps in to make
>> > decisions, for example about the timing of votes, when there is
>> > disagreement."   Having an elected steering committee is common in
>> > other software projects I pay attention to (e.g., Python and Jupyter).
>>
>> As another data point, in section 12.8 of his book "The Design and
>> Evolution of C++", Bjarne Stroustrup describes an invocation of a
>> "delay a vote to the next meeting" rule in the ANSI/ISO C++ standards
>> committee (which at the time typically met about 3 times per year):
>>
>>   [[a proposal for extending the C++ language]] was presented at the
>>   standards meeting in Seattle in July 1990.  There appeared to be a
>>   massive majority for making this the first non-mandated extension
>>   to C++.  At that point, Beth Crockett from Apple stopped the committee
>>   dead in its tracks by invoking what is known as the "two week rule:"
>>   Any member can postpone voting on a proposal that has not been in
>>   the hands of the members at least two weeks before the meeting until
>>   the following meeting.  This rule protects people against being rushed
>>   into things they don't understand and ensures that there will always
>>   be time to consult with colleagues.
>>
>>   As you might imagine, Beth didn't gain instant popularity by that
>>   veto.  However, her caution was well founded, and she saved us from
>>   making a bad mistake.  Thanks!  As we reexamined the problem after
>>   the meeting, Doug McIlroy [[found a better solution]]
>>
>
> In our case, the delay was requested by an individual who for months 
> ignores repeated requests to provide a backup of our old wiki (which he 
> hosts in his academic department, without anyone else having access to the 
> host). One of the reasons for delay given was that he was upset that I 
> "violently" (I guess in Frenchish this means "bluntly") pointed this out on 
> this very forum, as an example of dangers of a small bus factor.
>
> And in our case the voting was allowed over a long period of time.
>
> Dima
>
>
>
>
>> -- 
>> -- "Jonathan Thornburg [remove -color to reply]" <
>> [email protected]>
>>    currently on the west coast of Canada
>>    "Why would we install sewers in London?  Everyone keeps getting cholera
>>     again and again so there's obviously no reason to install sewers.  We
>>     just need to get used to this as the new normal."
>>                             -- 2022-Jul-25 tweet by "Neoliberal John Snow"
>>
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>>
>

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