Another user here throwing in his two cents (Gentoo must be rich by
now). But I think that the mailing list absolutely needs changes. Like
it or not, after the recent negative press, including the embarassing
Daniel Robbins incident, this list has become a much higher-profile
public face of Gentoo. For my own part, I have used this distro for
years and never subscribed until all this bad press, and never posted
until now that I see a potentially positive move coming under so much
attack.
Jim Ramsay wrote:
To my recollection, the recent flame wars have for the most part been
between devs and non-devs.
It's a funny old thing because I wanted to say exactly this, but to make
the opposite point! After reading for a few months, I am shocked, not
just at the way that some people are behaving - there will always be bad
behaviour, but that non-devs are allowed to come here and gratuitously
insult developers with apparent total immunity. Developers are subject
to bans and forced "vacations" from the project, as they should be. But
from my observation all the recent flamewars have either had non-devs at
the center of them, or been outright started by them, and there is
nothing anybody seems to be able to do about it. This is a ridiculous
situation that should never be tolerated (and would not be in a
healthier project) and it's perfectly reasonable to me that the council
wants to address it.
I think the heart of the problem is people assuming they have rights
that they should not have. The only people who should have a RIGHT to
post to this list are developers, and for everyone else it should be
considered a privilege - one that can be easily revoked. There's no
reason why a project has any obligation to create a mailing list that
their developers are required to use in the course of their duties AND
where they are subject to abuse from random people.
For the people who are saying "if this change goes through, I'm out", I
don't think that's helpful. It's natural for some non-dev contributors
to feel that their contributions are being minimized by a move like
this. But I think it has to be acknowledged that a change is necessary,
and you should instead join the discussion about how this is actually
going to be done. I for one think a blanket ban of non-devs from posting
is going a bit far, especially since I'm sure devs value many of their
comments. But that's just it - it should be up to the developers whom
they want (and more importantly don't want) to interact with. I would
propose a plan whereby non-devs can be removed by a vote from some set
number of devs. Say, if 5 or 6 developers do not want a person posting
on the list any more then that person ought to be banned. I think most
contributors would not have to worry about this happening to them.
That's just one suggestion, and I'm sure the council is open to hearing
alternatives from others.
Chris
--
[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
