Re: [gentoo-project] Items for Council Agenda, May 14

[Daniel Campbell]

On 05/11/2017 12:17 AM, Matthias Maier wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> On Sat, Apr 29, 2017, at 12:00 CDT, "Anthony G. Basile" <blueness@g.o> wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> The Gentoo Council will be meeting in two weeks.  If anyone has any
>> issues we need to discuss, please let me know and I'll put it on the
>> agenda.  Thanks.
>
> I would like to make a last minute proposal.
>
> Proposal:
>
>   I ask the council to establish a procedure / team to moderate the
>   gentoo-project@ and gentoo-dev@ mailing lists:
>
>    - In general the amount of moderation shall as minimal as possible
>      (in particular developers and long-time contributors
>      unconditionally green-lighted),
>    - but for non-developers abusing the mailing lists for their own
>      agenda their contributions shall be moderated.
>    - Similar to irc operators there shall be a decicated moderator team
>      to ensure a quick and timely response.
>    - The moderator team shall be different from council members, and
>      ideally also comrel, such that these groups can act as a check and
>      balance.
>
> Rationale:
>
>   The gentoo-dev@ and gentoo-project@ mailing lists nowadays serve
>   an important role for Gentoo development (e.g. mandatory announcement,
>   RFCs, PATCH reviews). This function is currently severly impeded due
>   to the high level of noise and unrelated personal agenda [1].
>
> Best,
> Matthias
>
> [1] https://archives.gentoo.org/gentoo-project/
>

This proposal, while well-intentioned, will only have an effect of
chilling conversation. If that's the desired outcome, then that's fine
(and we'll get to keep the pieces of what's left), but if the leadership
of Gentoo cares about non-developers, we shouldn't be cutting them off
from one of the more open fora we operate.

At the core, whoever's moderating this will either be following the CoC
(defined and enforced by comrel), or following direct council decisions
like calling for the ban of a person on the ML. So despite attempts for
a separate balance of power, it still has to filter through comrel and
the council or any decision will be vetoed.

I think there are a handful of Gentoo developers that would greatly
enjoy this, but they're only focusing on the bad parts of interfacing
with the public. We also need to consider how this will make us look to
other communities and projects. Do we want to be among distros that
moderate and expel dissenting opinions? Do we want to project an image
that "Gentoo doesn't care or listen to outsiders"?

I'd be open to a trial -- try it out for a few months and see what
happens. I have a feeling I'll be right and activity will plummet, but
the only way to know for sure is to try it. Then nobody can argue over
it because we'll have facts to work with.

Just my 2¢.
-- 
Daniel Campbell - Gentoo Developer
OpenPGP Key: 0x1EA055D6 @ hkp://keys.gnupg.net
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