On Saturday 11 June 2005 03:21 pm, Anthony DeRobertis wrote: > Sean Kellogg wrote: > > Well now, this strikes me as a problem.... from a political science > > perspective (my undergrad degree). Debian-legal, a self-appointed group > > of various legal, political, an philosophical stripes, is making > > substantive policy decisions based on thin air? > > No. Debian-legal does not make policy decisions. Debian-legal advises > the ftp-masters, who make the actual policy decisions (and, it does seem > that they generally agree with our advice).
> The ftp-masters are appointees of the elected project leader. Well, that's certainly a great deal better, structurally. I guess I've never really seen any ftp-master discussion on this list... but then again, I don't know their names, so I wouldn't really know who was who. But at least there is some amount of accountability. The fact remains that it is far too easy to criticize d-l if operations continue under this system. I've been on this list for almost 4 years, with special attention ever since I entered law school... I know the sort of round-and-round fights that go on here that later get presented in FAQ's as consensus. As I said, I've never actually heard an ftp-master agree or disagree with the list... but if I were in their position I would have a hard time accepting advice from a forum who can't point to language that backs their claim. > [And, FYI, if you check the mailing list's archives, you'll find that > the currenty project leader helped in drafting some of those tests. So, > I suppose, we could probably ask him to give those tests the project's > official blessing. However, there does not seem to be any need to do so.] Yes, I know that he was involved with developing these tests, and I know that he takes a very expansive view of the DFSG. My point is not to impinge on the good leader's opinions... only to note that a poor organizational structure can still come to good decisions. More importantly, the DPL does not have authority to state that these tests are extensions of the DFSG. I may not be a DD, but I have read the Constitution :) -Sean -- Sean Kellogg 2nd Year - University of Washington School of Law GPSS Senator - Student Bar Association Editor-at-Large - National ACS Blog [http://www.acsblog.org] w: http://probonogeek.blogspot.com So, let go ...Jump in ...Oh well, what you waiting for? ...it's all right ...'Cause there's beauty in the breakdown