On Sat, 7 Aug 2004 21:43:06 +1000 Matthew Palmer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> The culture of the project may be causing us to drive away Africans and > Hindus, yes. If so, I think we should consider it's effect and whether > we are losing something valuable from their lack of participation. > > - Matt This is absurd. One cannot tell the color of a person's skin from most or nearly all communications that are part of the Debian Project and if you are suggesting that there is discrimination in the New Maintainer process from ID verification, then that would be an issue that cannot be reflected throughout the Project and should be dealt with in the realm in which it is a problem. If you are suggesting that Africans or Hindus are timid, as seems to be one of the major arguments in favor of promoting female involvement, that is either racist or is not a problem that is exclusive to any one group, but rather "minority groups" in general (which is still not your typical "minorities" of ascribed characteristics, but includes personality types, socioeconomic status, etc.), in which case, having an exclusive "women" list, for instance, is silly. Instead, there might should be a "participation" list or somesuch, that reaches out to all such persons and attempts to facilitate their inclusion in the project. Cheers, Chris Hagar
