[Kalle Kivimaa] > It's actually pretty easy. Count the number of posters that seem to > disagree. If this number is over half of the current developer > count, then yes, a majority of the developers are in > opposition. What you _cannot_ do is say "because over 50% of the > people participating in the discussion disagree with the proposal, > over 50% of the developers disagree."
Counting and verifying that the number of participants in the discussion was less then half the number of DDs will not really tell us anything, as we can not reasonably claim anything about the meaning of the silent majority. There is no doubt that most of the debian developers did not participate in the discussion. This does not tell anything about those not participating. They could agree, disagree, or not care. I suspect your retorical suggestion would lead you to conclude that there only was a vocal minority protesting against the suggestion, but it could equally well lead to the conclusion that there was a vocal minority proposing this list of requirements. It is probably safe to avoid drawing any conclusions based on these criteria, and instead use ones own judgement when weighting the arguments previosly presented in the way too long mailing list thread. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
