Re: [gentoo-dev] metastructure model (was Re: Sunrise contemplations)

[Donnie Berkholz]

Kevin F. Quinn wrote:
> On Wed, 02 Aug 2006 12:00:56 +0200
> Thierry Carrez <koon@g.o> wrote:
>
>> Excerpt from the metastructure model, chosen by the majority of devs
>> last year (and not my model):
>> [...]
>> * It may have one or many leads, and the leads are selected by the
>> members of the project. This selection must occur at least once every
>> 12 months, and may occur at any time.
>> [...]
>
> While we're on the subject of the metastructure model, could we
> consider changing this rule?  It's a little strict, and I suspect it's
> honoured more in the breach than otherwise (by which I mean some,
> perhaps many, projects don't bother to hold a selection process every 12
> months). The 12 month rule makes perfect sense for the council and
> foundation trustees but it's over the top as a rule for all
> projects.
>
> I would suggest something along the lines of, "selection of
> leadership of a project can occur at any time, but can be forced should
> a majority of the team feel a new selection is necessary", perhaps
> with a rider allowing projects to setup stricter rules if they feel the
> need.  I'm assuming (since I haven't checked) that project membership
> requires agreement of the project (i.e. people can't just join a
> project without the existing project members' agreement).
>
> The idea being that if the current leadership want to step down they
> can do so and selection occurs within the project by default.  At the
> other extreme, if a lead becomes a pita for everyone else on the
> project, the rest of the project can oust the lead by majority
> decision (hopefully a rare occurrence).

One nice thing about the 12-month model is that it's harder to get on
bad terms with a lead that you'd rather wasn't the lead anymore. It's
less of a feeling of conspiring to oust them and more of a feeling of
"Well, they didn't win the election this time around."

However, it's easy to avoid the election if nobody else accepts a
nomination, as happened in the desktop project. That saves all the hassle.

Thanks,
Donnie