Hi, A few thoughts, if I may:
On 26/07/2020 21:37, Sean Whitton wrote:
Private Discussions ------------------- One way to solve the perception issue is to have a way for people to have private discussions with the TC.
I think being able to have some private discussions with the TC could be helpful, especially if the TC is to more explicitly include mediating social problems within its remit.
The risks here seem to include "the TC seems to be doing nothing because it is talking in private" "the TC becomes [seen as] a secretive cabal" and "TC only announces its decision, leaving the losing side feeling like they've not had a fair hearing". Some of those could be addressed in how decisions are announced; but "try and discuss in public as much as possible" is a tricky line to find.
**Proposal 2**: Explicitly delegate the mediation task for solving social conflict between developers, when no code-of-conduct violation is in place. This could be to: a. A new group of developers b. The Community Team c. The Technical Committee.
I suspect that mediation may need to be part of the TC role (rather than being done by a separate group) - as you say there are likely to be both technical and social issues at play, and trying to have them addressed by separate bodies seems likely to be messy?
As mentioned, the restriction on the TC only being able to choose between options limits the work that the TC can do. It also limits the legitimity that the committee has, because it's seen as a bunch of people that just issue decisions without doing any of the work.
I think the counter-point here is that if the question comes to the TC "should we do A or B" and then a TC member says "Actually, I think C is better", how does the TC (give the impression of) giving all of A B and C a fair hearing? Relatedly, if developers ask the TC "A or B", and the TC says "this isn't a ruling on A vs B; rather, we think you should consider C instead", that might well be unsatisfactory.
**Proposal 4**: Modify the Constitution to allow the TC to get invoked early, clarifying how that works.
Or have a separate body to invoke early for technical advice, with the TC remaining the body of last resort? Again otherwise the risk is the parties talk to the TC informally, who informally suggest a solution; one party is unhappy and wants a formal resolution, but will then feel that this is a doomed enterprise because the TC has already suggested something - where can they usefully appeal?
**Proposal 5**: Abolish the TC and split it into separate roles. This would of course require changing the Constitution and there are a bunch of open questions regarding who gets to do what and how the members of each body should be elected.
FWIW, I don't think this is the right answer. Regards, Matthew
