"Jorge Manuel B. S. Vicetto" <jmbsvicetto@g.o> posted
4A4D97D5.10407@g.o, excerpted below, on  Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:32:05
+0000:

> I have a few ideas about this that I'll have to put in writing and share
> later, but let me start by proposing that for such a change we require
> the support of at least 2/3 of the devs that vote *and* a minimum of 1/3
> of all devs.
> By requiring the support of at least 1/3 of all devs, we can ensure that
> it won't be possible to have extreme events as getting a policy change
> approved by > 90% of the voting devs which happen to represent < 10% of
> all devs. OTOH, requiring 2/3 of the voting devs might prove to be to
> hard in an election with a high turnout - afaicr we didn't have > 60%
> turnout in any election in at least the last 2 years.

I don't believe that's workable.  See for instance the issues getting the 
Gentoo Foundation's bylaws approved.  A 2/3 super-majority of voting devs 
is fine, but the 1/3 of total devs requirement can be problematic, given 
that some devs simply aren't interested in politics enough to vote at 
all, ever.  We don't want to be in the situation the Foundation was in.  
Now, if the total devs requirement was much lower, say 10%, then maybe, 
but if we're going that low, is it even worth bothering?

So I'd say keep it to a 2/3 super-majority of voting devs, and leave it 
at that.  If people don't what 2/3 of say a 10 % voting minority decided, 
well, they should have voted.  (And if /enough/ people don't like it, 
have another vote and undo it.)

For much the same reasons, tho, I favor the council super-majority idea.  
Certainly, a simple majority changing what is effectively Gentoo's 
constitution is distressingly unstable, but 5/7 is 71%, and if no more 
than two council members can be found to oppose a move that needs to be 
stopped, we're in trouble, regardless.  Plus, they ran for the job, so 
can be considered to be politically active enough to actually vote, 
unlike devs in the general case.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman