[gentoo-dev] Re: GLEP 38: Status of forum moderators in the Gentoo project

[Duncan]

Diego 'Flameeyes' Pettenò posted
<200506281255.41021@××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××.org>, excerpted below,
on Tue, 28 Jun 2005 12:55:35 +0200:

> And until you don't figure on roll-call after taking a quiz, you can't
> be considered "Official Staff/Developers", so you can't just say "we're
> official", also ATs getting developers must take the quiz, so you see
> that the quiz *is* a fundamental part of it.

FWIW as a prospective AT myself...  The current amd64 AT requirements, at
least, require taking not only the "staff" quiz, but the full ebuild quiz,
so it's NOT just ATs becoming devs, but ALL (at least amd64) ATs, AND
it's the full ebuild quiz the devs must pass. (I can't say about other
archs, but there's only one such non-amd64 AT so far, on ppc64, and I
wouldn't be surprised if he had to take the full ebuild quiz as well.)

>From the amd64 AT documentation:
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/base/amd64/tests/index.xml?part=1&chap=1

<quote>
Prospective AT's will have to pass the ebuild quiz, currently here.
</quote>

("Here" points to the ebuild quiz
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/quiz/ebuild-quiz.txt )

Further to the point made elsewhere, but without the source reference,
further quote from the first link above:

<quote>
A note about arch testers "status": Gentoo/AMD64 Arch Testers are not
official Gentoo developers. They are, however, a recognized part of the
Gentoo/AMD64 arch team. I ask that all AT's keep this in mind when
selecting email signatures or other forms of communication.
</quote>

So, yes, ATs take not only the staff quiz, but the full ebuild quiz. 
Further, the expectation is clear that they will be held to "professional"
conduct standards.  For me, that will probably mean giving up my
references to "MSWormOS", at least if and when I choose to identify
myself as an AT.

On the thread subject...

It seems to me there's really not a lot of controversy, only the sides
keep talking past each other and making it more than it is.

Both sides seem to agree that moderators of individual forums shouldn't
have to take the quiz, eliminating the problem of the i11l forums ESL
(English-second-language) mods.

Only the global mods and admins would have to take it, and they all know
English pretty well as a defining characteristic of their job, so the
requirement to take the quiz (and know English well enough to communicate
decently in the Gentoo staff community) shouldn't be an issue.

Further, many of the global mods are already staff/devs, and of those that
aren't, there are only three who haven't said they plan on taking it
anyway, and two of those are inactive.

Thus, the whole debate is over one person, who has expressed a reluctance
to take it but has said (s)he will if necessary.

IMO, that makes it pretty much a non-issue.  If the global mods wish to
make that position official Gentoo staff, and vote among themselves to do
so, there should be no exceptions.  If the one (or either inactive)
global-mod who has concerns chooses not to take the quiz, simply make that
person a individual forum moderator, but just list every forum in the list
of forums they get mod rights in, thus effectively making them a global
mod in all but name, which, if global-mod is to now mean Gentoo staff and
they haven't become Gentoo staff yet, is effectively what they'd be anyway.

OTOH, the global mods, now seeing what it would mean, and that many
already have staff/dev status anyway, could actually decide they don't
want or need Gentoo staff status as part of the global mod description
after all.  They could remain as they are.  It would be perfectly
reasonable for one or more global mods to change their vote out of respect
for the single individual that has expressed reluctance, and to rescind
the GLEP before official vote of the existing Gentoo staff and devs on it.
Things would continue as they are now, and any individual global mod, as
anyone else, could still become a Gentoo dev or Gentoo staff member
independently.

So...  I don't have a vote, but I'd vote yes on a GLEP that made the
forums a Gentoo project and required the global moderators to become
Gentoo staff -- assuming of course they didn't decide they didn't want
that, after all.  No exemptions for individual global mods, but no
exemptions needed, because most are or have expressed an intention to
become staff anyway, with only one person expressing reservations, and if
that person chooses not to, they effectively simply become an individual
forum mod, who happens to have mod rights in /every/ individual forum, so
nothing's lost but the name, IMO a fair sacrifice to the democratic vote
to become staff, considering there's always the choice to take the test
and get back or keep the global mod label as well, if (s)he so chooses.

-- 
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 in
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/12/22/rms_interview.html


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