On 1/31/08, William L. Thomson Jr. <wltjr@g.o> wrote:
> Daniel,
>
> On Thu, 2008-01-31 at 12:12 -0700, Daniel Robbins wrote:
> >
> > What is relevant to post here is that I thank Grant et al for
> > clarifying whether I was a valid nominee, and I did seriously consider
> > the offer, but ultimately decided that to what I think is necessary
> > would require fundamental changes to the way the Gentoo project is
> > structured which would have been very disruptive and difficult to make
> > even as a trustee, and it's not clear that I would have the ability to
> > make these changes as a trustee even if I were elected due to the
> > current structure of the project that I would have been required to
> > work within.
>
> Is it not worth it to you to try? Worse case you are limited and can't
> do what you like. But more than likely it's not all or nothing either
> way.
>
> > I also don't really feel comfortable with the concept of developers
> > voting to make decisions like this for the project. It doesn't seem to
> > yield good results or be a positive use of time, and I don't really
> > think the underlying concept is sound.
>
> Not to be argumentative or confrontational. But out of curiosity as I
> was not around the. Weren't you a participant in creating the structure
> we have now? Creation of the foundation, board of trustees, election
> process, etc.

One of my co-workers has a saying 'Trying things out is one of the
best ways to see if a thing works'.  Just because he helped create the
structure we have today doesn't mean that structure was success; then
or now.  Much of this involves experimentation.  No one knows the best
way to manage a volunteer group of this size and we have to have some
sort of organization and we have to be smart enough and wise enough to
know when a solution is not working and work to fix it.  Whether that
means incremental changes or more sweeping changes; I don't think
anyone knows ;)

-Alec

>
> >  So by accepting the nomination
> > I would be participating and thus supporting a system that I
> > fundamentally don't agree with, and I can't see that as being a good
> > thing. At the very least, it doesn't sit well with me.
>
> Usually pretty hard to change anything externally. Usually much easier
> to make changes from within. If major, then broken down in to smaller
> baby steps. Change usually requires leadership, and if not in a position
> to lead. Makes any changes much more difficult to see through. IMHO
>
> --
> William L. Thomson Jr.
> Gentoo/amd64/Java
>
>
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