To The Point Of Collapse

Politics
After listening to a lecture by the illustrious Dr. Gabriella ("biella") Coleman on the ethics of Free Software hackers yesterday, I read the expulsion thread on -devel. Hearing what biella talked about makes me think that Debian, as a culture, isn't ready to start expelling people based on their ability to get along with the rest of the project. It conflicts far too much with our ideals. On the other hand, drumming a person out so they feel so unwelcome that they choose to leave is pretty well Ok with us. If we're going to make interactions between developers more civil and friendly and less personally hostile then we need a different kind of stick. Maybe a carrot of sorts is in order too?

In other news, I've proposed a mechanism to "facilitate communication" so that the DPL candidates can stop repeating it every year. This mechanism is inherent in the constitution, and if we start expecting that the DPL assume this responsibility and exercise this right, it'll actually happen and the DPL will at least have some more concrete way in which to do some leading. Maybe it'll help the whole project gain some momentum and not get bogged down by some of the long-running debates that have plagued us in the past.

Advertisement