Re: [gentoo-project] Re: Trying to become a Gentoo Developer again spanning 8 years...

[Raymond Jennings]

Yes, Gentoo is kinda democratic because the projects elect their own 
leads.

Questions:

1.  How to handle superprojects that are themselves composed of 
subprojects and may or may not have their own non-project members?  
Should the subprojects get to vote?  If so, do we just count the votes 
of each project's lead (probably elected bottom up), or all the 
project's members?

2.  If a project gets stagnant and "implodes into a ball of stiff stale 
tar" through complacency, should the gentoo developer community as a 
whole have veto power to be able to oust the lead?

I'm kinda in favor of 2, just for the sake of keeping project leads 
accountable for making sure that the project exists to benefit gentoo 
as a whole.  And it would work for any project that goes off course 
from the needs of the whole community...and not just "hot button" 
projects like comrel or whatever.

IIRC we already have leads elected by the members of the project to 
have accountability to the project and the needs of its membres, but 
what about the accountability of the project to the gentoo community as 
a whole?

Bosses and leads provide organization and structure and a clear path of 
responsibility.

As for 1, I think that making a project part of another 
project...hmm...who decides that?

On Wed, Oct 5, 2016 at 9:55 AM, Gregory Woodbury <redwolfe@×××××.com> 
wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 3, 2016 at 6:16 PM, Raymond Jennings <shentino@×××××.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> The only comment I have right now...
>>
>> What if project leads were generally left in charge to run their
>> projects as they see fit, but the gentoo developer community as a
>> whole reserved the right to recall the lead if they don't like how
>> the project is being managed?
>>
>> This would help with stagnant projects or the like or projects (such
>> as the recent fight between games and council) that aren't
>> responsive to the needs of the gentoo community.
>>
>> I like democracy, but who should the voters be?
>>
>
> Well, that is, to me, a large part of the problem.
>
> The social/political structure of Gentoo is based on a status of
> being an "accredited developer."  Meaning that there are hoops to jump
> through to prove that one has a sufficiently advanced technical
> ability, and an ability to work within the rules.  This restriction on
> who gets a vote or not makes the situation into one of conservative
> vs. progressive: restricted voting rights are associated with
> corporate
> cultures that are inherently conservative. They are often more
> concerned
> with maintaining a "status quo" than in moving forward.
>
> This is *exactly* what and why these conversations are taking place
> here and now.
>
>
> --
> G.Wolfe Woodbury
> redwolfe@×××××.com