Re: [gentoo-dev] Democracy: No silver bullet

[Daniel Ostrow <dostrow@gentoo.org>]

<snip a bunch>

> If I could go back in time a couple of years and prevent this democracy
> from ever happening, I would. If I could fix these problems myself, I
> would. But it requires buy-in from the entire Gentoo community if we're
> to do anything about it.

</snip a bunch>

First of suffice it to say that many a time in the past (and that is sad
to say as I have only been a dev for just over two years) I have been
privy to whispered murmurs that happen in back rooms behind closed
doors. These whispers have always come about when one of the
aforementioned log threads have come about and the penultimate
conclusion of every one is that the problem that Gentoo presently faces
is in fact too much freedom.

Part of me wants to believe that you are right in that the only way to
get back to a place where there is true vision and power behind the
Gentoo name is to get community buy in and part of me wants to hunker
down and accept the likely reality that the only way to get back to a
point of health is to start laying the "smack down". Now I don't mean to
say that there is any negative connotation to that process...just that
those that are elected to be in charge are inherently trusted to do
their best for the future of Gentoo and that implicit in that trust is
an understanding that they may have to take dirty and potentially
unpopular roads to maintain that health. Bitching and complaining be
damned; part of what paralyzes us is an acquiescence to that vocal
minority. None of us want to deal with hearing the outcry so no-one does
what is needed. Basically I'm saying that while some level of acceptance
has to come from the community as a whole and some level of it has to
come from the top down whatever the outcome.

The Council has to be willing to be the body whose job is to maintain
the long lasting heath and happiness of the developer community, that
community is what Gentoo is.

In addition to the conclusion that too much freedom has entered the
life-blood that drives Gentoo it is also often the case that from the
stance of upper management there is not enough freedom given. Part of
what paralyzes the Council and devrel and any other historical body that
has tried to keep Gentoo healthy is that there is an understanding that
they can only act as a whole...as individuals none of them have power as
there is fear that a rouge person in a position to abuse their
responsibility will do so. It is my contention that with a body of
multiple individuals such as the Council that there would be the ability
to recognize and mitigate the damage done by such a rogue. I'd posit
that by voting someone onto the council you are saying that you trust
them enough to carry this duty on their shoulders. The Council itself
should not be just a technical body to validate the merits of GLERs
and/or emerging projects, it (or some other yet to be established group)
has to carry the solemn duty of carrying Gentoo into the future,
nurturing it as only a parent could.

I'd also wager that allowing those who have been trusted to be in power
to act a little on their own would provide the capability for that group
to react more quickly, there wouldn't need to be emergency meetings, you
wouldn't need to push off decisions for a full month and in general as
there would be more activity there would also be more transparency as
the actions of the group would be visible.

All in all I suppose that is the platform that I am running on for this
years Council...take it for what you will but that is where I stand.

Thanks,

--Dan  

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