On Sun, 2 Nov 2003 04:18:19 -0500, Branden Robinson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said:
> It would mean people didn't want the Project compelled by its Social > Contract to distribute non-free forever and ever. > It wouldn't necessarily mean that the Project would think > distributing non-free now *isn't* a good idea. > You have accused me elsewhere on this list of treating the > developers as dumb sheep who aren't capable of discerning when > they're being tricked, imply that you do not share this opinion, and > yet you think they're going to misunderstand the following? > 13) Clause 5 has been stricken entirely. *This amendment does NOT > mandate the removal of the non-free section from anything, > anywhere.* What it does do is withdraw our commitment to > provide a "non-free section" via a File Transfer Protocol > (FTP) archive specifically. This makes it possible for us to > decide, in the near or distant future, to stop distributing > the non-free section without violating our own Social > Contract. This by itself does not matter as much as you think it does, since the voter has no choice here. Heck, I know that the rationale said that, but it does not affect my intent. So, people overwhelmingly voting to remove clause 5 would still mean a mandate for removal of non free. Now, if this were part of the ballot; if I could chose a) remove clause 5, but do not remove non-free from the archive b) remove clause 5, and clear the way to remove non-free as well then yes, we can remove clause 5, and clearly know whether or not there was a mandate. Lacking this, I think people shall vote for the proposal on its merits, and their intentions are not limited to what the rationale says is proper motivation and intent. Lacking a clear choice made by voters, no amount of "people who chose this proposal believe in chaos theory" style assertions in the rationale carry any weight. > Which of us is expressing the lower opinion of the electorate, > again? I certainly am not. You seem to think that stating something in a rationale binds peoples motivations; like they were sheep to change their reasons for voting just because you said so in the rationale. manoj -- "I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior."-Hippolyte Taine Manoj Srivastava <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/> 1024R/C7261095 print CB D9 F4 12 68 07 E4 05 CC 2D 27 12 1D F5 E8 6E 1024D/BF24424C print 4966 F272 D093 B493 410B 924B 21BA DABB BF24 424C