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Re: Machine maintainer veto.
- From: Torvald Riegel <triegel at redhat dot com>
- To: munroesj at linux dot vnet dot ibm dot com
- Cc: Rich Felker <dalias at libc dot org>, "Carlos O'Donell" <carlos at redhat dot com>, GNU C Library <libc-alpha at sourceware dot org>
- Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2015 00:10:35 +0200
- Subject: Re: Machine maintainer veto.
- Authentication-results: sourceware.org; auth=none
- References: <559606DB dot 6070600 at redhat dot com> <20150703062020 dot GN1173 at brightrain dot aerifal dot cx> <55968712 dot 2020604 at redhat dot com> <20150703153427 dot GP1173 at brightrain dot aerifal dot cx> <1436189186 dot 9162 dot 20 dot camel at oc7878010663>
On Mon, 2015-07-06 at 08:26 -0500, Steven Munroe wrote:
> There has to be a balance between the consensus of the community and the
> requirements of the platform (as represented by the maintainer).
Note that the consensus of the community may be a requirement for the
community too (ie, there may be conflicting requirements).
> Democratic consensus can quickly turn into the mob rule, where ignorance
> or malice of community members with strong but unfounded opinions can
> also do great harm. Read up on the Death of Socrates or later stages of
> the French revolution.
>
> I think we need a balance of Powers definition that protects both
> interests.
What would you suggest as mechanism to "protect" the community from
machine maintainers making decisions that conflict with the community's
interests?
For example, would it be okay for you if machine maintainers would have
to be responsible for their changes on their won if they exercised their
"veto rights"? (That is, if they go their own machine-specific way
against a different community consensus, they can't necessarily expect
generic code to be compatible with their own way, nor authors of generic
code to put a lot of effort into making it compatible.)