Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: Alec Warner <antarus@g.o>
To: gentoo-dev@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] Getting the general dev opinion ("Meinungsbild") on some feature
Date: Sun, 20 Jan 2013 16:47:35
Message-Id: CAAr7Pr-+fzqJ1UwJ6WhDEb-fQac2KzbizzdNBmqJDACmHoWpwQ@mail.gmail.com
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-dev] Getting the general dev opinion ("Meinungsbild") on some feature by Rich Freeman
1 On Sun, Jan 20, 2013 at 7:39 AM, Rich Freeman <rich0@g.o> wrote:
2 > On Sun, Jan 20, 2013 at 10:20 AM, Andreas K. Huettel
3 > <dilfridge@g.o> wrote:
4 >> So, a thread like "Should we enable useflag Z by default" would then include
5 >> "Please discuss here, vote on ..." with a link to the count page (updated via
6 >> cron every 1h). On login to ..., a message similar to the "open elections
7 >> message" could be displayed.
8 >>
9 >> Obviously the implementation does not exist, but this is conceptually simple
10 >> enough so it could be implemented within reasonable time.
11 >>
12 >> Opinions?
13 >> (Yes / No / More discussion needed :D )
14 >
15 > What's the point? I don't think democracy is the best way to handle
16 > these sorts of things.
17 >
18 > Plus, it leaves out users. Why does that matter? Think about it:
19 >
20 > If what you want is expert opinion then the last thing you want is any
21 > kind of poll of anybody. Put it on the lists, follow the discussion,
22 > chat with experts that emerge on irc/email/etc, and make the best
23 > decision. Is that hard? Sure. But, if your goal is to discover
24 > issues and learn then you won't get that in an easier way. .
25
26 The primary complaint was the fact that there is too much email. While
27 I don't disagree with your idea overall; it doesn't solve the problem
28 of essentially too many messages to read, which is a disincentive to
29 even try. This ends up where developers don't read -dev (or skim -dev,
30 or are not even subscribed to -dev.)
31
32 >
33 > If you just want to get a sense for what people find useful in a case
34 > where popularity really is relevant (like the cups example) then you
35 > really want to poll the entire userbase. A forum poll or something
36 > like that is more useful for that. This isn't used for judging
37 > technical rightness, but purely for assessing popularity.
38 >
39 > If an issue is highly contentious then rather than counting votes it
40 > makes more sense to ask the council.
41 >
42 > Other options include creating choices (that requires a maintenance
43 > commitment though), and this is often facilitated by starting a
44 > project. Then you can have somewhat more organized meetings/etc
45 > around a topic of interest.
46 >
47 > Rich
48 >

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