Hi Louis, On Fri, 22 Jun 2007 08:38:59 -0400, "Louis Desjardins" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Isn't there a way on the channels (IRC, bugtracker, mailing list) to simply > restrain the access to a specific individual when things get to a point > where repetitive demands and persuasion don't seem to give any results?
This is not so simple, in part due to the way the GIMP project is organized (or not) :-). Short recap for those who are not familiar with the project: - When it comes to the code, neo (Sven Neumann) and mitch (Michael Natterer) are by far the most active developers. They have the final say on most technical decisions. Have a quick look at the ChangeLog and you will see which names appear frequently. Like many free software projects, GIMP is like an informal meritocracy, so those who contribute more have more authority over the technical aspects of the project. - But when it comes to the infrastructure such as the IRC server ircd.gimp.org, the web servers, the mailing lists and the gimp.org mail server and user accounts, yosh (Manish Singh) owns or operates most of it. He is also an active developer. Since he is the administrator of these servers or services, he is the only one who can restrain access to these channels. - In the past, we had several proposals for setting up some kind of code of conduct or guidelines for participation in the project. There were also some proposals about what to do when someone misbehaved. But these proposals were never formally approved and were never enforced. I think that the last attempt was initiated by bolsh (Dave Neary) before he decided to quit the project, mostly because of Carol. Of course we have some guidelines such as the List Etiquette published on our web site (http://www.gimp.org/mail_lists.html) and some IRC rules on our wiki (http://wiki.gimp.org/gimp/Irc). But these are recommendations and they are rarely enforced. Usually, Yosh has been swift in blocking access to people who misbehaved on this mailing list or on IRC, except for Carol. There are several reasons for that, including some that are related to Carol's past situation, but I don't think that it is up to me to explain them. I probably do not know half of these reasons anyway. Yosh has mentioned in a previous message that it will take him a bit more time to state his opinion on this matter and I respect that. Since he is the only one who can enforce any decision, there is not much point in arguing about Carol and continuing this discussion until he explains what he intends to do (and why, maybe). > Let's face it, I realize this is pretty unusual and must very rarely happen > but there is a possibility that someone else steps in one day with the same > behavior. While there are of course no ways to prevent this upstream can we > at least make sure there are ways to prevent this person from being in > contact with the community once the problem has been clearly identified? > > I really wish we can sort this out because this might happen elsewhere in > any other project. It is not an exclusivity of the gimp team! The problem that we have been facing with Carol for several years is quite unusual, and as far as I know, exclusive to the GIMP team (alas!). In part because Carol's behavior is rather unusual: sometimes she tries to help, sometimes she tries to mislead people, sometimes she harrasses people. And in part because we never took any effective measures against her, contrary to other annoying people who disturbed the project and were quickly excluded from this list or kicked from IRC. -Raphaël _______________________________________________ Gimp-developer mailing list Gimp-developer@lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU https://lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU/mailman/listinfo/gimp-developer
