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On Tue, Feb 13, 2018 at 12:51 AM, Alec Warner <antarus@g.o> wrote: |
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> |
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> In some fields (law, or finance for example) there are rules against having |
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> even potential conflicts. Should Gentoo emulate those rules and produce an |
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> organization that avoids even the appearance of conflict? |
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Absolutely! |
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> A council member is on a team (not even necessarily QA / Comrel). That |
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> team's lead makes a decision. The council member doesn't agree with the |
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> decision and appeals to council. |
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> I would argue the member raising the issue has a conflict and they should |
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> not vote (recuse / abstain). |
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Merely disagreeing with a decision is not a conflict of interest on its own. |
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A conflict exists when somebody stands to personally benefit from a |
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decision. What personal benefit does a member of a team get from |
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appealing a disagreement? |
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Now, if the decision concerned them personally in some way I could see |
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a conflict, such as if it were about a reimbursement of an expense |
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they incurred, or if it were about sponsoring them to go on a trip. |
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I wouldn't even consider it a conflict of interest if it were a QA |
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decision on a commit they made, unless this commit furthered some kind |
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of work they were doing outside of Gentoo (the commit benefited their |
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employer or their consulting business). |
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Conflict of interest isn't the same as disagreement. It is completely |
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normal and healthy for people to disagree with things. This does not |
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in any way make them prejudiced or likely to make a decision that is |
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bad for the distro. |
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Again, I'm completely in favor of avoiding conflicts of interest. It |
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just seems that there is a popular notion around here of what a |
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conflict of interest is which certainly wouldn't stand up in a court |
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of law, or really in any organization. Perhaps this is why so many |
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seem to be paranoid that there is some kind of cabal running the show. |
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(One which is elected, so presumably this cabal is upwards of 30+ |
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people.) |
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-- |
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Rich |